If 12 months
But cheers to these next five crime stories for being extremely weird and entertaining us along the way.
Best Mugshot: Miamian with half a beard arrested on 4/20 with full intent to sell weed.
In Kevin Gibson's defense, his beard looks awesome. But on April 20 of this year, Gibson was caught on South Beach drinking from a Heineken bottle in public. This then led police to the 70 alleged grams of weed he had stashed on his person. His look hasn't caught on, however, perhaps due to the long series of felonies in Gibson's past, including assault with intent to murder, aggravated battery, and felony sexual battery.
Best Use of Surprise Drugs: South Beach VFW Hall Shuttered for housing cocaine ring
The South Beach Veterans of Foreign Wars hall was one of the last places in ritzy Miami Beach where you could get drunk on $1 Bud Light cans while listening to grizzled Vietnam veterans rant angrily about Barack Obama. In grand Miami tradition, the hall was also a hotspot for cocaine-dealing and illegal gambling for decades too. Miami Beach cops raided the famed establishment in May and shut the place down after a six-month sting. Now, New Times' cocaine-addled grandfather is stuck at home on his armchair, and he's been extra grumpy without his weekly hit of blow.
Best Use of Blatant Drugs: Miami coffee shop busted selling over-the-counter cocaine
While the Miami Beach VFW hall was able to operate a
Best Drug Cartel Story: Hitman tied to Fidel Castro, Medellin Cartel caught after 26 years on the lam
Drug kingpins in Miami used to call Anibal Mustelier "the Ghost." He'd pop up out of nowhere, maybe put a bomb under your car or fire a machine gun at you in broad daylight (he's actually accused of doing both), and then vanish again for years. After allegedly killing people for Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel, and supposedly working for Fidel Castro himself, many people assumed Mustelier had either vanished to a foreign
Best Fraudster: Miami Tech Guru caught lying about his resumé, then caught orchestrating a Ponzi scheme, then caught on the run in Malta
Alberto Chang-Raji's story is basically a Mad Libs for Miami Ponzi
Bonus! Florida's craziest crime story of the year: Austin
Austin