Claudio Rojas is sitting in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, quite likely for political reasons. Rojas, an Argentine immigrant, was detained by ICE and later reported on conditions inside the Broward Transitional Center, a for-profit ICE detention facility in Pompano Beach run by the Boca Raton corporation GEO Group…
In a piece of news that begs the question, “What the hell were you doing beforehand?,” the FBI yesterday announced in a press release that it’s creating a permanent task force to investigate money-laundering and corruption in Miami’s real estate sector. Per the FBI release, the new “Miami International Corruption Squad” will…
For the second straight year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Miami field area saw the largest proportional spike in immigrant arrests, according to a New Times review of ICE data. ICE released its yearly arrest and deportation statistics for the 2018 fiscal year last December — apprehensions in ICE’s Miami “area of…
It’s no secret the Miami area is in desperate need of affordable housing. The city often ranks among the worst for renters; research shows Miamians spend more of their incomes on housing than residents of any other U.S. city. Wages aren’t keeping up with housing prices. Meanwhile, the city has…
Behind bars, male inmates masturbating in front of female employees is so common, there’s a word for it: gunning. Ceneca Valdez, a counselor at Miami-Dade County’s Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, says she experienced it repeatedly on the job, along with vulgar comments and gestures. When she brought the problem…
Florida inmate Lazaro Galvan was in his dormitory at the Dade Correctional Institution in December 2017 when guards asked him to pack up his things. Galvan left his property at the officers’ station so it could be checked for contraband and was taken into confinement. After the search, Galvan…
The Glades County Detention Center, a prison facility about two hours northwest of downtown Miami, nearly had to close in 2014. It wasn’t getting enough inmates to justify its existence. But the county jail found a new cash cow in Donald Trump, whose deportation crackdown has swelled the…
Ron Book, one of the most powerful lobbyists in Florida, was arrested Sunday for DUI, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office online arrest database. Book is one of the most influential behind-the-scenes political figures in the state. In addition to being the lobbyist for powerful private firms such as the prison giant GEO Group, Book is also the official lobbyist for Miami-Dade County.
In an absolutely staggering announcement, Jupiter Police today announced that billionaire and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is being charged with soliciting prostitution in Palm Beach County. Kraft is one of 25 people who have arrested as part of a huge sex-trafficking sting. The TC Palm yesterday reported that,…
It was a strange case from the start: a prominent Florida State University law professor shot to death in broad daylight at his home in an upscale Tallahassee neighborhood. And over time, the 2014 murder of Dan Markel turned stranger still. Police quickly determined the killing wasn’t a robbery or…
America’s drug war is still here and still going strong. Today, Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announced that her office persuaded a grand-jury to indict two fentanyl dealers for first-degree murder — purely because they sold the opiates to a user who later died. Rundle’s office said two…
Since its launch about a year and a half ago, the secret Facebook group Miami Beach Crime Prevention and Awareness has been lauded by city leaders for its efforts to fight crime. Despite a lean toward vigilantism and concerns from groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, the group has been awarded…
For years, Miami-Dade Police have had the technology to intercept cell phone communications in real time. Since 2003, the county has spent more than $526,000 on contracts with Pen-Link, a Nebraska-based surveillance technology company, to equip the the county police department with a telephone surveillance system. The latest contract with Pen-Link is set to…
It is a fact that Elliott Abrams, America’s special envoy to Venezuela, covered up at least one Latin American genocide. In the 1980s, Guatemalan Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt’s U.S.-backed forces slaughtered 1,771 indigenous Mayan people whom Montt’s forces fraudulently claimed were supporting “left-wing” guerrillas. According to two-time George Polk Award-winning reporter Allan Nairn…
Like most Soundcloud rappers, up-and-coming Treasure Coast hip-hop artist YNW Melly has a bunch of face tattoos. Curiously, the 19-year-old Melly had an artist ink the word “Sakchaser” on his forehead, just above his left eye. The tattoo honored a fallen friend: A member of Melly’s rap crew, YNW Sakchaser,…
Each March, thousands of young, drunk tourists descend on Miami Beach, slip into their neon-colored swimwear, and transform into spring breakers. With fake IDs in their beach bags and the complete discography of Pitbull blasting from their portable speakers, this species can be observed guzzling beer from funnels and twerking on police vehicles before passing out face-down in the sand.
Former Miami Gardens Police Sgt. Javier Romaguera’s reputation is so tarnished the U.S Attorney’s Office refuses to prosecute his cases. But he says he’s just a Good Samaritan who’s been wronged. You might remember Romaguera. He was fired last fall and subsequently sued after a woman said he kidnapped…
More than a year ago, a group of City of Miami Fire-Rescue employees got canned after committing what looks, on paper at least, to have been a racist attack on a black firefighter. In November 2017, six firefighters were terminated after they allegedly took their black colleague’s family photographs, drew…
In the five years since he was killed by Miami Beach Police while tagging an abandoned building, Israel “Reefa” Hernandez has returned to life in countless street tributes, a graphic novel, a skateboard line, and his own art. Now, the story of the 18-year-old, Colombia-born artist is headed to the…
Just yesterday, alt-right hero and white-supremacist-adjacent Florida congressman Matt Gaetz tried to kick parents of Parkland shooting victims out of a federal gun-violence hearing. The video footage of the event, captured by CSPAN, is insane for a number of reasons: For one, Gaetz conducts himself like a petulant child. Moreover:…
Westernbank used to be one of the largest financial institutions in Puerto Rico. At its peak, it employed 1,500 people. But it took just one man to take down the San Juan-based bank. In 2010, a Key Biscayne resident named Jack Kachkar brought its operation to an end with a $142 million…
On a Wednesday night in early January, about 20 officers wearing tactical vests and carrying assault rifles raided a family’s home in Sweetwater. The police were looking for James Castro, a 40-year-old registered sex offender accused of slamming his car into a cop during a drug sting earlier that day. But Castro wasn’t at home; instead, only his mother, two younger brothers, and pregnant girlfriend were there.
