War on drugs leaves trail of cold case cases in Miami-Dade

MIAMI – When an murderer killed Oscar Piedrahita — who had allegedly betrayed Colombian cocaine trafficker Griselda Blanco — he used a submachine gun in 1982 in Miami-Dade County.

The hitman put extra bullets in Piedrahita’s storage door than he put in him. He had the Military Armament Corporation’s MAC-10, which fires off greater than 1,000 rounds consistent with minute with little accuracy.

Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Dave Wilson informed then Local 10 Reporter Mark Potter that he had simplest observed two to 5 device weapons right through his 10-year occupation.

“It seems like I see one a week in this town,” Wilson stated about Miami-Dade right through an interview that aired in the 1982 five-part collection, “Colombian Drug Wars.”

Former President Richard Nixon had already declared a “war on drugs” in 1971, which triggered the U.S. Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, or BNDD, to develop into the DEA in 1973. Meanwhile, in Miami-Dade, the checklist of cold cases endured to develop.

On Christmas Day in 1975, a person’s frame used to be floating in a canal. Detectives known him as Jeffrey Owen Warner, who “was a part of a drug organization” and reported his pals “refused to speak to authorities or have been killed themselves.” He used to be 24.

Detectives known Blanco as a suspect who stood to win in the 1979 fatal Dadeland Mall shootout since she allegedly owed cash to at least one of the sufferers.

Detective June Hawkins, an analyst with Metro-Dade Police conversant in Blanco, apprehensive that federal, state, and native legislation enforcement had been outpowered and outnumbered.

“We are losing the battle,” Hawkins informed Potter. “I mean we are just flat out losing.”

Detectives additionally known Blanco as being in the back of the 1982 homicide of two-year-old Johnny Castro, who Dade cops discovered useless — wrapped in mattress sheets with roses. His grieving father, Jesus “Chucho” Castro informed police that he had labored for Blanco and he and his son had been in the auto right through a drive-by capturing.

‘’When they catch up with me, they’re going to kill me,’’ Castro, 44, informed a Dade detective, according to the New York Times. “I’m going to take a few of them with me.”

Dade detectives had extra cold cases that stay unsolved to this present day:

• A shooter killed Diego L. Ramirez, who used to be Colombian, in 1984, in the parking space of an condominium advanced in the Tamiami house. He used to be 27.
• Felipe Oscar Santiesteban, who detectives known as “a known narcotics dealer/trafficker,” used to be shot in his driveway in 1985 in the Princeton house. He used to be 40.
• Also in 1985, close to Kendall, a automotive bomb exploded killing Glenn Gibbs, who detectives known as “a member of a drug organization who had become a federal witness” and used to be set to testify in courtroom.

• In 1986, Pedro Luis Castellon, who’s Colombian, died after a capturing in a shopping center in Miami Gardens.

Meanwhile, the White House tried to focus on call for. President Ronald Reagan Reagan signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 to acceptable $1.7 billion to “the war” and to show federal supervised free up right into a punitive machine for narcotics cases. First Lady Nancy Reagan promoted her “Just Say No” marketing campaign.

“Out of our drug-related cases, I would say maybe 10% get solved,” Hawkins informed Potter about Miami-Dade crimes. “Out of our total caseload, our drug-related cases are reaching … 20% to 40%.”

In Colombia, the Supreme Court justices dominated 13-12 in 1987 to get rid of extradition to the U.S. Dade detectives suspected that many of the serial killers use pretend IDs to shuttle from side to side from Miami to Medellin.

“Colombians are very nomadic. They have no roots in the community and they are very mobile,” Metro-Dade Lt. Raul Diaz informed Potter. “We have had cases in which immediately after a homicide, we have responded to a residence in which we know there are suspects, associates of the victim or associates of the suspect and they have moved within hours after a crime has been committed.

In 1988, detectives found the body of Eugene “Yellow” Bell within of a field, on the aspect of the street. Bell, 41, used to be from Chicago, Illinois, and detectives suspected he “ was involved” in narcotics trafficking. A witness noticed “a Latin male, 30 to 40 years of age” in a truck.

Dr. Charles Wetli, a scientific examiner who labored on many of the cold cases in Miami-Dade, informed Potter that it used to be a “typical” crime and plenty of occasions it’s very exhausting to spot the sufferers.

“A Cadillac pulls up on the side of the road, takes a large box out of his trunk, puts it on the side of the road, and drives off,” Wetli stated. “And inside the box, this person has been shot, and tied up and placed in plastic bags … I think we are seeing an ough a lot of that.”

Wilson stated Colombian narcotraffickers had exerted such terror that it used to be uncommon for witnesses to come back ahead to assist resolve DEA cases.

Justice stuck up with Blanco. After she used to be sentenced to fifteen years in jail in a federal courtroom in New York City for cocaine-related convictions, she pleaded to blame to 3 counts of second-degree homicide in Miami-Dade and used to be sentenced to 3 concurrent 20-year sentences. Health problems triggered her deportation in 2004, and a capturing killed her in 2012 in Medellin.

Visit on Friday for Part 5 of the collection of “Colombian Drug Wars.”