Elfrink Wins Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award

Miami New Times' managing editor has won a Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award in non-deadline reporting for his story "Hooked: How a Floating Bale of Cocaine Led to the Florida Keys' Worst Murder in Decades."

By Chuck Strouse

April 23, 2018

Jesse Lenz

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Miami New Times' managing editor has won a Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award in non-deadline reporting for his story "Hooked: How a Floating Bale of Cocaine Led to the Florida Keys' Worst Murder in Decades."

The award, one of the nation's most prestigious, was in the non-daily publication category. It will be presented during a banquet at the National Press Club June 8.

The story details a double murder in the Keys that traced to a huge bale of cocaine a fisherman had found floating in the ocean. It describes how drugs are often seen bobbing in the water off Florida's coastline.

Other winners this year include ProPublica for a series that showing the United States spends more per capita than any other nation on health care yet has the highest rate of maternal mortality and severe morbidity in the affluent world. The Sarasota Herald Tribune also won for a series revealing that laws dating back to the crack epidemic continue to prejudice black defendants, even as the drug crisis shifts out of minority neighborhoods. That project also showed how black people have been left behind as the conversation turns to treatment.

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Chuck Strouse is the former editor in chief of Miami New Times. He has shared two Pulitzer Prizes and won dozens of other awards. He is an honors graduate of Brown University and has worked at newspapers including the Miami Herald and Los Angeles Times.

Contact: Chuck Strouse

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Twitter: @chuckstrouse