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Murder in Miami is a production of

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iHeartRadio. We

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touched upon the potential for corruption

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that swirls around the drug trade in our

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last bonus. It's a topic that

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came up with former Miami Day detective

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Jeff Lewis and was particularly

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evident during Miami's darkest policing

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period in the late nineteen eighties, when

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at one point, nearly ten percent

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of the entire Miami Police Department

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was suspended or fired after

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a drug related scandal. It

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seems to me like that was a perfect

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storm because you had this

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influx of drug money

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pouring into the

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area and you had a need

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to increase the

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policing of it, just in terms of the sheer

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number of the volume of officers

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who were hired at that time. And

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did that negatively impact the

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force? I think it was both

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a positive and negative both

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our department and the City of Miami Police Department.

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We're in a rush to

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hire police officers to fill the void,

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both departments, on a national recruiting

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effort, and at that time also

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I believe, like some departments up in North

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New York in that area, they were laying off officers.

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So kind of worked out and

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Miami Dade ended up with officers

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from all over the north and northeast,

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as well as the City of Miami, although I think the City of Miami

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ended up with more local individuals becoming

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police officers. The problem with

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that was I don't think they were able to do

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thorough background investigations or

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really delve into who they were hiring

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just because they needed to again

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fill the void, and as a result, individuals

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slipped through the cracks that turned out to be actually

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criminals doing police work, and

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that came to fruition later on with the

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River Cops case scenario and some

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other incidents involving police officers.

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Now, the plus side was they also ended up

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hiring quite a few excellent

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police officers that I worked with. It came on with

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me, became detectives

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or became ranking individuals within the

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department and were able to guide the department.

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It was a

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plus animative. Fortunately,

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I think the plus side came out ahead

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in the long run. Could you just in

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a nutshell explain what the

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River Cops case was? Yes,

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the River Cops case was a

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group of City Miami uniform police officers

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working the midnight shift would go to the

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Miami River and rob the

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locations that were board the Haitian freighters

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that would come into Miami. Usually they

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had multiple keyloads of cocaine

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on board, and they would

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literally load up their police cars with cocaine

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and take it out and from there they would

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distribute it, sell it, make money doing

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it, and a lot of those robberies

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weren't reported because they didn't

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want to get arrested for dealing guards. And this

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went on for a little while until

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they hit a boat where

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the Haitian and victims actually jumped off

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the boat they would prepare for their lives, and in doing

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so, a couple of them drowned in the

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Minami River. This occurred within

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our jurisdiction, so our homicide unit,

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led by Alex Alvarez, assumed

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the investigation and subsequently arrested

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twelve or thirteen City Miami uniform officers

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for this homicide and drug

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dealing and ensnared probably

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another hundred or so that were

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caught up one way or another in

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the City Minati Police Department. Some not rightfully

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so, but you know, some were guilty by

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association. It was a big mess

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for the City Minaiti Police Department. In

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our department, because everyone

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looked down on the police at that particular time, and this

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was again during the height of their criminal

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activity, so it kind of handered us a little bit

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as well. But eventually they were all arrested

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and exposed and we're

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shut down by our police department.

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Am I mistaken in believing

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that also around this time there

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were actually criminals who would

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dress up in police uniforms

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and do you know home

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break ins? And

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Yeah, what happened was eventually,

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as we found out in working at robbery,

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was that that was in fact occurring

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where the criminal element and this was

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basically initiated after the Merrial moment.

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One hundreds of thousands of mary Alitos will

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be leased from prisons and mental

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wards in Cuba and they came to Miami

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and they needed a job and they

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didn't want to work, not all of them, but a

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lot of them. And they figured

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out the easiest way to rob a drug dealer

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was to dress up like a police officer, get

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a uniform or get a shirt to set the police,

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draft up a fake warrant, put

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the gun belt on, get a fake badge. Anybody

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can get a badge. You can still get badges today and

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do it and post as police

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officers, and we started getting these cases.

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We really didn't know what to think at the time

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because we were a little

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baffled by it. Then we figured out that

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it wasn't a police impersonators

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join these home invasion robberies, and they

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were probably thousands at these different

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groups acted as police

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officers to do these home invasion robberies.

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Wow, I can't imagine how difficult

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it would have been to

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have been, you know, a good honest

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cop in that time

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period where you had

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not only you know, an element of

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rogue criminals within the department,

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but then actual criminals impersonating

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police officers. All right. It was

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It was definitely unique. And of course, you know,

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once we figured it out, we started our investigation,

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sometimes working with the FBI or the DA

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or ATF and we started rescuing these

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gangs. And you can go in and stu

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recovering the equipment

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and the uniforms and the guns, and some of them more better

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equipped than we were. Some of them had better

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firepowers, more firepower than

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we did. And they had police radios.

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I mean, they would buy cars and they can look like police

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cars. If the police

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lights, they would be trapped stops on drug

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dealers. I mean, these guys really took it to the extreme,

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and they made a lot of money doing it because

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again a lot of these robberies were

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not reported initially because

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the drug dealers didn't want to be identified

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as drug dealers or they didn't want to make themselves

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known to law enforcement. So unless somebody

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got hurt or shot or actually killed during

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one of these robberies, we had no knowledge

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of it. And then what would happen when

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we started making a rest and we started getting cooperation

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from some of these individuals. They would

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identify locations to us that they had

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robbed, and we'd checked those locations,

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we would find out that there were no police reports

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made, and of course we'd identify those individuals

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and pass out on to the narcotics detectives.

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Wow, insane.

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That was crazy. For

7:10

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