See that charming woman pictured below? She may have just orchestrated the cruelest crime yet tied to the Great Recession of 2009.Miami police say that Illeana Pillarte, a 35-year-old, scammed more than 70 unemployed people into believing she represented Jackson Memorial Hospital and had jobs available. Last week, Pillarte, who…
Since last week, when a Coral Gables Senior High student fatally stabbed a classmate, cops have found at least eight weapons on Miami-Dade students. Apparently, its not uncommon for more kids to come to classes armed after an incident of school violence. Maybe it’s peer pressure. Maybe it’s some notion…
Most people on the Metrorail in the early morning are headed to jobs to make money legitimately, but police suspect an armed bandit has been going to work terrorizing the Allapattah area in a string of armed robberies. Two women were robbed at gunpoint this morning. The first incident occurred at…
Dozens of police cars and an ambulance have shut down an entire neighborhood on the western edge of Little Havana this afternoon as SWAT teams and canine units look for two armed men on the run. Cops are swarming along NW Seventh Avenue, shutting every southbound street from 30th to…
The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report was released today, and between 2007 and 2008, America saw a 1.9 percent drop in violent crime, a 3.9 percent drop in murder, and a 1.6 percent drop in rape, but those decreases didn’t materalize in Miami-Dade County. An estimated 8,749 violent crimes occured in the county last year, a…
A quick lesson for all the school kids feverishly getting a Riptide fix before class this morning: If you’re working for a blatant Ponzi scheme (and don’t worry, someday you will) and the SEC phones and tells you not to lose any documents, don’t tell your employees to fire up…
On Wednesday, another horse was stolen and slaughtered in Miami-Dade County. The cat killer is officially passe. Yesterday, the Miami-Dade Police Department raised its reward for information about the horse killings to $7,000 — and that’s in addition to the $5,000 the Humane Society is offering. That’s 12,000 reasons to…
On Monday, a dispute — perhaps over parking — outside hipster-central Overtown club White Room turned shockingly violent. Two teenage girls trying to park on North Miami Avenue were pinned into their parking spot by an enraged SUV driver and peppered with gunfire. Reports originally suggested the violence was tied…
Albert Gonzalez, the Miami hacker who pulled off the biggest theft of credit card information in history, has reached a plea deal with the feds. He’ll get 15 to 25 years in prison. He’ll also return $2.8 million in ill-begotten funs along with some pricey personal property. He’ll plead guilty to 19…
Yesterday, Johnson Jamerson, an HIV-positive drifter, was sentenced to 15 years for biting a police officer after threatening to infect him with the virus. The sentence seems stiff considering the CDC says biting “is not a common way of transmitting HIV.” In all recorded cases, the blood of the HIV-positive person…
The state is being forced to ante up $12,500 in taxpayer money for the defense of accused cat killer Tyler Weinman, according to the Miami Herald. Circuit Judge John Thornton ordered the state to pay up after Weinman’s lawyer argued the kid didn’t have enough money to properly fund his defense. Ten…
Rodney Miller, 18, was arrested yesterday in connection with the July shooting at a birthday party in Overtown where two were left dead and ten injured. He was charged with two counts of second-degree murder. There are six MySpace pages registered to a Rodney Miller in Miami. Though listing his age…
Flanked by the victims’ sobbing family members, Miami Police Chief John Timoney announced this afternoon the arrest of a suspect in a brazen mass shooting in Overtown.Police nabbed Rodney Lashawn Miller, an 18-year-old with a long criminal record, just before 1 a.m. this morning near 65th Terrace in Liberty Square…
In what looks like the largest crime of its type, Albert Gonzalez, a 28-year-old Miami man, was indicted on charges of hacking into computer networks and stealing information from more than 130 million credit and debit card accounts. Gonzalez — who also goes by the hacker names “segvec,” “soupnazi,” and “j4guar17″…
Miami-Dade Police found a young Hialeah man dead this morning outside of the Days Inn Miami International Airport Hotel. He was identified at 3:30 a.m. as 21-year-old Raudel Sanchez. The noisy, hotel is located on NW 11th Street on the southwest side of the airport. Not much is yet known about Sanchez…
Earlier this summer, New Times brought you the story of Roman Vidal, a 54-year-old Cutler Bay resident accused of funneling millions of dollars’ worth of black-market cigarettes through the Port of Miami to criminal gangs in Europe.Just before 11 a.m. today, Vidal pleaded guilty to four counts of wire fraud,…
When the NFL suspended Cleveland Browns receiver Donte’ Stallworth yesterday for the full 2009 season, he issued an official statement with all the right sentiments about the drunken March 14 crash that killed a man on the MacArthur Causeway.Stallworth promised to “use the period of my suspension to reflect, to…
David Ranck, the former Miami-Dade County prosecutor who punched a pizza lady in the arm after a horrific argument about the serious issue of proper pizza delivery, will have his misdemeanor battery charges dropped. All he has to do is complete anger management classes and do 25 hours of community service. He had previously resigned from his…
Miami Police arrested four young suspects, including two teenage girls, on suspicion of robbing a Little Havana man at gunpoint early this morning.Salene Cala, age 14, and Estefay Ferrera, 16, were arrested after police pulled their car over just after 6:30 a.m. They’re accused of helping an 18-year-old man, Olin Lopez, and a…
You know what’s delightful? Knowing your tax money goes to slimy guys such as convicted Medicare crook Ramon Santos. Riptide certainly sleeps better at night knowing we helped finance his shiny new Ford Expedition. Sigh. Last Friday, the 42-year-old faux-nurse from Hialeah was convicted for health-care fraud and obstruction of…
This is one story cops don’t like to admit. When Officer Michael Zambrana parked his unmarked dark gray 2004 Dodge Intrepid police car at 11421 S. Dixie Hwy. in Suniland Plaza, he probably didn’t expect it would be stolen. Who in their right mind would jack a cop car?But when he…
Remember Edward Hugh Okun? He’s the 58-year-old Miami businessman who tricked hundreds of people out of $126 million through two fraudulent Richmond, Virginia companies that promised to defer capital gains taxes. As scams go, everything was rosy until he married Simone Bolani, a 20-something Miami Beach salon owner. When the two divorced, Okun…
