One night in mid-July, FBI agents swarmed three buildings around town simultaneously. It was one of the most incredible drug busts in Miami history — and hardly anyone noticed. At the time, we wrote about how a sculpted, tattooed Spaniard named Álvaro López Tardón and several associates stood accused of…
An early-morning beachgoer called Miami Beach Police shortly before 7 a.m. today to report a disturbing find: a body lying near the sea around 68th Street.The dead man had a gunshot wound to the head, Det. Juan Sanchez, a Miami Beach spokesman, tells Riptide. “Early indications are that it’s self-inflicted,”…
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night will keep your drugs from you, apparently. Drug traffickers are increasingly using U.S. Mail and commercial carriers such as FedEx to ship drugs out of the country. In fact, in Florida alone the amount of cocaine and marijuana being intercepted…
Club 90 Degree first etched out a niche downtown as the Latin dance spot for the non-Calle Ocho crowd, with reggaeton, salsa, and merengue nights; lately, they’ve added hip-hop nights and had Power 96 broadcasting live from the floor on Saturdays.Last night, police say, at least two gunmen opened fire outside…
When three masked men armed with pistols entered the Luna Star Café in North Miami this past Saturday night, Ira Goldstein, a retired NYPD officer in his late 60s, intervened. Unfortunately Goldstein wound up in the hospital, and the robber made off with money from the cash register and valuables…
Police have made an arrest in the July 12 death of 2-year-old Dominicue Andrews. Police allege 23-year-old Lelier Perez Hernandez, the driver of a van charged with transporting children for the Jomiba Learning Center in Homestead, left Andrews in the vehicle, where the child eventually died due to the heat. Perez is…
This past June, singer Paulina Rubio was involved in a fender-bender in Little Havana and then found herself arrested after she screamed, “All of you Miami cops are abusive,” at police officers who had arrived on the scene. Now a judge has ordered Rubio to face trial on charges of…
Nicaragua-born musician Luis Enrique, hailed as the Prince of Salsa, returned to his Miami home earlier this week after promoting his latest album in Puerto Rico only to find that his home had been ransacked and burglarized. A window had been broken, and furniture in the home had been moved.”It’s…
Poor Miami Edison Senior High. Just a couple weeks ago, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho had to roll into Tally guns blazing just to keep the Little Haiti institution open; despite big gains from an F to a C ranking, the state could have forced Edison to close or become a charter…
According to police, 29-year-old Waleska Velasquez, a teacher at Miami Jackson Senior High, was involved in a yearlong sexual tryst with a 16-year-old male student. Velasquez apparently lavished the boy with cash and gifts. She was arrested today and charged with three counts of unlawful sexual contact with a minor…
If the charges against Kelly Michael Bachmeier are true, Riptide salutes him for hitting for the cycle of Florida crimes: extreme drunkenness, a complete lack of pants, erratic driving and, of course, a good Tasering.Sheriff’s deputies say they caught Bachmeier near Gainesville completely naked in the drivers seat and then…
Last week, 23-year-old Julian Soler and his girlfriend, 24-year-old Kennia Duran, were shot and killed outside a Mobile gas station near Miami Gardens after an attempted car-jacking involving a group of three men. Now police have made an arrest in the case, and they believe one of the perpetrators is…
Four years after Modern Family star Sofia Vergara immigrated to Miami from Colombia, she moved the rest of her family, including her mother, sister, and younger brother Julio, to the country. However, after nearly 30 arrests during his time in the States, Star magazine reports that Julio was deported earlier…
Nineteen-year-old Andy Rodriguez has been found guilty of the second-degree murder of 17-year-old Juan Carlos Rivera. The two teens, then both students at Coral Gables Senior High School, got into a fight at the school in September 2009 that ended with Rodriguez fatally stabbing Rivera with box cutter…
Rescuers pulled the body of a white male out of Biscayne Bay around 8:30 this morning after he was spotted floating just south of the Julia Tuttle Causeway. The man was a jet skier, Gabriella Ferraro, a Florida Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman, tells Riptide — but he hasn’t been ID’d…
Daniel Yepez learned a little something about psychedelic mushrooms this weekend. Namely, that too many can make you trip your balls off so badly that walking slowly and determinedly into the ocean while screaming, “It’s time for me to die!” seems like a great idea.Luckily for Yepez, a 21-year-old from…
Attention, modern criminals and/or wayward offspring of public officials: We know that you, like all of us, are pressed for time. And sometimes it’s so much easier to send a text than to meet on a misty loading dock under the cover of night. But we still advise you against…
In an often emotional trial, Andy Rodriguez stands accused of fatally stabbing classmate Juan Carlos Rivera with a box cutter in the halls of Coral Gables Senior High School in 2009. Rodriguez’s defense team is trying to paint his actions as merely in self-defense.Days after jurors viewed surveillance footage of…
A 12-year-old girl was rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital last night after she was shot by her brother. The brother, in his early 20s, was carrying a gun when it accidentally discharged and sent a bullet into the girl’s leg. She’s recovering and in stable condition. Update: The brother has…
A Miami-Dade Police officer is accused of arresting a Guatemalan man on trumped up charges and calling him a “fucking immigrant” after asking where the man was from. Cases like this sure don’t help those in favor of bringing Arizona-style immigration laws to Florida and claim that they wouldn’t lead…
Mustafa Cornelius Lee, 28, and Francisco Henriquez, 35, have been charged with attempted murder after allegedly shooting off-duty New York City Police Department Detective Harold Thomas in South Beach over the weekend. The shooting appears to have stemmed from a robbery attempt…
Brothers Jonathan and Luis Baez have been arrested after seriously beating up a pilot on a plane at Miami International Airport last night. The skirmish started after the flight crew ordered one brother off the flight because he appeared to be drunk or on drugs and ended in the terminal…
