Gaston Canten, a prominent Cuban-American businessman who used his ties in the community to bilk victims out of their hard earned money, has officially been charged and has agreed to plead guilty to his part in running a $135 million Ponzi scheme. Canten’s scheme went so far that even Belen…
It figures that one of the first babies born in 2012 in Miami-Dade came into the world three weeks early because of a petty theft.Ana Johana Irias, 26, was using an ATM near Northwest 36th Street and 13th Avenue when a teenager drove by on a bike and snatched her…
Manuel Mares was one of the more popular faculty members at the Hialeah-based Florida National College. During graduation speeches, students made sure to thank the 56-year-old academic adviser and former business professor for his mentoring. He worked in the criminal justice department and in September appeared on a Miami-Dade police…
As always, we’ll start Riptide’s annual tradition of counting down our list of the year’s worst cops with a caveat: being a cop in the 305 is one of the toughest law enforcement gigs in the country and despite the weekly headlines here, most Dade cops do good work. As…
The domestic flight baggage carousel at Miami International Airport always makes us nervous. We’ve arrived in one piece. We’re ready to finally get to our destination. The only thing left to do is collect our luggage. Why isn’t it on the carousel? Oh my God, someone could have just randomly…
Donna Shalala may have just averted her worst nightmare. Ever since Napoleonic Ponzi booster Nevin Shapiro spilled his guts to Yahoo Sports this summer with allegations that he’d rained gifts on student-athletes — from cars to hookers to piles of cash — the worst-case scenario for the Canes would be…
A Miami Beach cop shot and killed a man early this morning while trying to break up a fight near 12th Street and Washington Avenue in South Beach. The officer fired two shots into the suspect’s stomach, says Deborah Doty, a MBPD spokeswoman, and the man died a short time…
Ligunson Edmond and Jacques Davis Jean, both 21, have been arrested on charges that they raped an eight-month pregnant woman in North Miami on December 22nd. Edmond has already admitted to police that he forced the woman to have sex with him…
A late entry in the race for the title of 2011’s most depressingly, shake-your-faith in humanity, horrible shell of a human: Christopher P. Smith, 32, of Kissimmee, Florida. Smith’s twisted tale is one of adultery, manipulation, and, most sickening of all, pedophilia, according to police.Margaret Ann O’Neill, 26, a woman…
Ismael Cruz-Pratts, 48, was struck and killed by three cars last night in North-West Miami Dade. Disturbingly, only one of the drivers actually stopped to assist the victim. The two other cars drove away as Cruz-Pratts was left for the dead on the asphalt…
All 24-year-old Philip Arthur wanted on Christmas Eve was some peace and quiet so his wife could sleep in; what he got, cops say, was a fatal chest wound from the Liberty City neighbor who was blasting the tunes.Dorian Hinkson, a 51-year-old resident of the Pork ‘n Beans projects, has…
Miami is the fictional home of Dexter, Michael Weston and Horatio Caine, so it makes sense that some truly messed up crime goes down in the real 305. Still, it’s astounding how the Magic City steps up year after year to deliver acts so depraved and bizarre they make Jeff…
On Sunday, Little Havana store owner Cen Yue Kui was behind the counter, ringing up a customer for a gallon of milk. Then, without warning, the “customer” sprayed Kui’s eyes with pepper spray, leapt over the counter, and beat him viciously with a hammer — all so he could run…
In pornos, prison-guard-on-inmate sex makes for a reliable plot. In real life, it makes for a pretty serious crime. Just ask Jack Chris Jackson. The former employee at the Federal Correctional Institute in Miami pleaded guilty to having sex with numerous inmates and now could face up to 15 years…
One simply does not mess with an 81-year-old Hialeah woman on her way to a taping of Sabado Gigante. If you keep her away from Don Francisco, you will pay a price. One armed robber found out the hard way after trying to rob a trio of abuelas, only to…
Christopher Tyrie Brantley, 19, is behind bars today after allegedly stabbing a puppy to death with a kitchen knife. The Broward man suffers from a mental illness according to CBS Miami…
When former Coral Park Senior High standout Arrington Jenkins chose to play for Florida State University over his hometown team Miami, he told an ESPN reporter: “I don’t have to worry about the ‘U’ anymore. I want to put them in the ground for the next four years.”However, after getting…
Former City of Miami assistant fire chief Veldora Arthur has been sentenced to 57 months, or just under five years, in prison after being convicted for her part in a $10 million mortgage fraud scheme. After release, she’ll serve three years of probation.Arthur faced as many as 20 years in…
Don King, a man known for his boxing promotion and superawesome hair, wanted to give back to the South Florida community. So he loaded a truck full of 30,000 turkeys and hoped to give them to families in need throughout the region. This, of course, being South Florida, the truck…
Former Miami Beach cop Lavont Flanders was one of two men convicted last week of drugging seven women and raping them on camera to make porno flicks. But his lawyer says that, despite his client’s public fall from grace, Flanders is no criminal.”These girls knew exactly what they were getting…
The investigation into the hazing activities of the Florida A&M University marching band following the death of member Robert Champion has uncovered more alleged instances of hazing in the storied program. Three band members have now been arrested for beating a woman, Bria Shante Hunter, during a hazing ritual unconnected…
When Charles W. Stiefel took control of his family’s business, Stiefel Laboratories was the largest dermatology manufacturer on earth. And the Coral Gables-based firm, which traced its history 160 years back to Stiefel’s ancestors in Germany, was still family owned.Charles Stiefel, though, decided it was time to cash in, and…
