Microsoft Worker From FIU Gets Jail Time for Fake FBI Ransomware Attacks

Raymond Odigie Uadiale, age 41, is great with computers. Good enough to be hired by Microsoft as a network engineer. And good enough, according to the feds, to run a virus scamming ring that seized computers via a fake warning from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, charged people a $200 “fine” to unlock their desktops, and warned users they might be sent to prison if they didn’t pay up.

Black Teen Framed by Miami-Area Cops Sues Department

Even in 2018, it’s a shock to actually hear cops admit to straight-up framing black suspects as a matter of policy. That’s exactly what’s happened in Biscayne Park. In June, federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment alleging that Raimundo Atestiano, the former chief of the tiny Miami-Dade town, had intentionally framed…

ICE’s Biggest Private-Prison Contractor Threatens to Sue Florida Civil-Rights Activists

Boca Raton’s GEO Group is Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s single biggest contractor, with more than $400 million worth of deals to run private prisons, including the Broward Transitional Center, a site housing “low-priority” detainees. As the Trump administration has ripped families apart and jailed immigrants with no criminal records, GEO has come under heavy fire…

Florida’s Private-Prison Population Spiked 211 Percent Since 2000

America largely phased out the use of privately run, for-profit jails and prison facilities in the early 20th Century after the public realized the practice of making a profit from caging people was a particularly heinous piece of the capitalist economy. But amid a government privatization push under Ronald Reagan, the idea came back. Two private-prison firms — California’s CoreCivic and Florida’s GEO Group — dominate the for-profit human-caging business today.

Mentally Ill South Florida Man Starved to Death in Prison, Lawsuit Alleges

When Vincent Gaines was sentenced to five years in prison on robbery charges in June 2013, state officials recommended he be placed in a mental-health unit because he had regular visual and auditory hallucinations. So Gaines was transferred to the Dade Correctional Institution in South Miami-Dade County, where he was placed on a “boneless diet” that left the five-foot-nine man 40 pounds lighter — dropping from 190 to 151 — in just 18 months.

At MIA, Feds Arrest Man Charged With Bribing Venezuelan Oil Officials

Last month, Miami’s federal prosecutors unveiled a string of indictments in an international scheme to funnel a staggering $1.2 billion out of Venezuela’s state-owned oil firm and then launder that money in South Florida. In fact, prosecutors believe that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is wrapped up in the scheme, the Miami Herald reports.

A Brief History of South Florida Cops Harassing LGBTQ+ People

Hollywood Police have now raided the same adult store twice in a single year. This past Thursday, Hollywood cops arrested 13 men for masturbating and having consensual oral sex in a secluded, private room — hardly the sort of police work that makes locals safer. Thanks to Hollywood PD, 13 men will likely be harassed or retaliated against by their families or employers simply for consensually enjoying themselves at a gay-cruising destination.

Sexual Abuse Victim Says School Board Knew Miami Teacher Had History of “Grooming” Students

In February 2017, Miami-Dade Police arrested Bernardo Osorio, a decorated math teacher at Cutler Bay Senior High, and charged him with sexually abusing an underage student. The school district quickly fired Osorio and issued a statement condemning his behavior. But a new lawsuit from Osorio’s victim says the district failed to discipline the teacher after another student made similar abuse allegations years earlier.

XXXTentacion Murder Suspect Robert Allen Arrested in Rural Georgia

Moments before a rented Dodge Journey swerved in front of chart-topping musician XXXTentacion’s BMW outside a Riveria Beach motorcycle shop June 18 and two men pumped the 20-year-old full of bullets, surveillance cameras inside the dealership captured a short, heavyset man nicknamed “Big Rob” walking around the store.

North Miami Beach Commissioner Charged With Taking Bribes from Strip-Club Owner

North Miami Beach, a city that does not work, continues not to work. Fresh off being named New Times’ second most corrupt city in Miami-Dade County, those pesky NMB’ers have done it again: State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle’s office today announced prosecutors have charged embattled Commissioner Frantz Pierre with bribery and money laundering.

Colombian Drug Kingpins Smuggled Oxycodone Pills Into Miami, Feds Say

As far as international crime syndicates go, Colombia’s Oficina de Envigado is old-school: The organization was founded in the ’80s as the enforcer and debt-collection arm of Pablo Escobar’s gigantic Medellín Cartel. Run by Escobar’s accomplice Diego “Don Berna” Murillo, La Oficina handled the syndicate’s dirtiest business, including contract killing…