3 OctOber 12-18, 2023 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | Contents | Letters | news | night+Day | CuLture | Cafe | MusiC | MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | ▼ MIAMI “DIGNITARY PROTECTION” SUAREZ BROUGHT BODYGUARDS TO ASIA — ON TAXPAYERS’ DIME. BY ALEX DELUCA I n mid-February, as plum blossom sea- son kicked off across Japan, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez packed his bags and jetted off to the bustling streets of Tokyo. On Valentine’s Day, he popped in to visit the country’s Minister of Defense and Minister of Foreign Affairs during the little- known trip, memorialized in a series of pho- tos on a Japanese government agency’s website, which features Suarez schmoozing with the foreign leaders over cups of tea. In response to a public records request filed in February for documents related to the trip, a City of Miami attorney assured New Times that “no city funds” were used for Suarez’s visit. However, newly released records appear to challenge that account, revealing that Miami’s globetrotting mayor brought two taxpayer- funded security officers to “provide dignitary protection” on the voyage as he traveled lav- ishly across Southeast Asia for nearly a week. Records show that Suarez — who is the subject of a state ethics investigation over claims he improperly accepted pricey sport- ing event tickets — traveled to Tokyo from February 12 to February 15 before heading over to Seoul, South Korea, until February 18 with his two sergeants-at-arms, officers from the Miami Police Department who were serving as bodyguards. Expense reports show the city reimbursed the officers more than $1,400 altogether for meals during the trip. The reports submitted by the officers list no expense reimbursement for hotels or transportation. In internal emails, city staff note that the mayor’s crew stayed at the glitzy, five-star Four Seasons Seoul and Ritz- Carlton Tokyo, the latter of which can cost upward of $1,000 per night. While one email between city employees vaguely references the mayor attending a conference, as well as the fact that someone was cover- ing the group’s travel and lodging, the communica- tions are unclear about what event the email was re- ferring to or who was ultimately footing the bills. “I am writing to advise you that Mayor Suarez will be traveling with his detail to Tokyo, Japan & Seoul, South Korea from February 12th through February 18th,” Suarez’s assistant wrote in a February 14 email to Miami Police Department staff. “Sergeants Alex Lamprou & Brett Preshong will be accompanying the mayor on this trip. The conference the mayor will covering [sic] travel and accommodation expenses.” The mayor’s spokesperson, Stephanie Sev- erino, did not respond to several emails from New Times inquiring about the purpose of the Southeast Asia trip and who paid for the group’s stay and travel. Roughly four months after traveling to Asia, Suarez announced his bid for the presidency in June. He dropped out of the race in late August after polling at less than one percent and facing outcry over his false assertions that he had qualified for the Republican primary debate. Suarez is currently the subject of a state eth- ics investigation into a complaint filed by Mi- ami activist Thomas Kennedy, who says Suarez improperly accepted costly tickets to Miami Formula One Grand Prix and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. A county ethics commission dis- missed a similar complaint last month after finding that Kennedy did not show substantial personal knowledge of the alleged violation, a prerequisite under county regulations. The Miami Herald reported that Suarez is also under federal investigation into claims that he wielded his position as mayor to help a local developer push his real estate project. In response to questions about the nature of his Qatar trip, during which he snapped pics at the World Cup with David Beckham (who notably lobbied for approval of his soc- cer team’s new stadium on city property), Su- arez’s office told reporters that no city funds were used. However, public records later ob- tained by New Times appeared to conflict with that statement, showing that two ser- geants-at-arms traveled to Qatar with Suarez on the city’s dime. Expense reports show that the city reim- bursed $1,102 to each officer for their food expenses. The group stayed at the luxurious, five-star Mandarin Oriental hotel in Doha, though the reports do not indicate the city paid for the hotel costs. While airfare was noted as “covered,” it remains unclear who paid for Suarez’s accommodations during that trip. | RIPTIDE | GET MORE NEWS & COMMENTARY AT MIAMINEWTIMES.COM/NEWS Miami Mayor Francis Suarez Photo by Jason Koerner/Getty Images ▼ FLORIDA QUEEN OF COCAINE WHO IS GRISELDA BLANCO, THE SUBJECT OF NETFLIX’S NEW SERIES? BY ALEX DELUCA M iami’s notorious queen of cocaine is getting her own Netflix show. Last week, Netflix released an offi- cial trailer for Griselda, a miniseries chronicling the life of Griselda Blanco and the vast drug em- pire she built during Miami’s bloody drug wars of the 1970s and 1980s. Created by the same team behind Narcos, the series stars Colombia-born Modern Family actress Sofia Vergara as the ruth- less drug lordess. The six-episode show is set to premiere in January 2024. It won’t be Blanco’s first time on the big screen. The wild and bloody tale of Blanco’s life has been rehashed in a handful of films, including Billy Corben and Rakontur’s 2008 documentary Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin’ With the Godmother and the 2018 Lifetime biopic Cocaine Godmother starring Catherine Zeta-Jones. New Times has chronicled Blanco’s violent past since the late 1990s. Born into deep poverty in Cartagena, Colom- bia, Blanco was only 11 when she allegedly com- mitted her first murder — fatally shooting a child from an upscale neighborhood whom she had kidnapped and attempted to ransom, according to an account by her longtime romantic partner. She moved to the U.S. in the 1960s and lived with her four sons in Queens, New York, one of whom she named Michael Corleone as an hom- age to her love for the Godfather films. Known as “La Madrina” (The Godmother) and the “Black Widow,” given her purported pen- chant for whacking her husbands, Blanco was accused of orchestrating multiple murders be- tween Miami and New York City, including mas- sacres in busy shopping malls, drive-by shootings in broad daylight, and an attack on a former en- forcer in which a 2-year-old boy was fatally shot. “If you bought drugs from her and didn’t pay her, she’d kill you,” a former Miami homicide de- tective said in Corben’s 2008 Cocaine Cowboys sequel. “And if she bought drugs from you and didn’t pay you, she’d also kill you.” Blanco oversaw a billion-dollar drug empire, at one point reportedly smuggling thousands of pounds of cocaine into Miami on a monthly basis and importing and slinging cocaine for Pablo Es- cobar’s Medellín cartel. She also simultaneously ran a lingerie shop in Medellín, where she cus- tom-designed bras with special pockets to stash cocaine for low-key smuggling into Miami. After burning every last bridge during her years-long reign as Miami’s most dreaded drug queen, she fled the city in 1984. In 1985, federal drug agents busted her in her California home; she was convicted the following year for conspiring to manufacture, import, and distribute cocaine. While local prosecutors tried to charge her with three murders in 1994, the case fell apart after Miami-Dade County State Attorney’s Office employees were caught having phone sex with the prosecution’s central witness. In 1998, Blanco pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to two decades in prison. She was released in 2004 and deported to Medellín, where she lived under the radar until her 2012 murder by a motorcycle-riding assassin. On September 3, 2012, while leaving an open- air butcher shop in Medellín with a $150 cut of meat, two masked men rode up on the 69-year- old graying Blanco and shot her twice in the head in an attack that resembled the signature style of motorcycle assassination that Blanco had been credited with coining. [email protected] THE MAYOR BROUGHT TAXPAYER- FUNDED SECURITY OFFICERS TO “PROVIDE DIGNITARY PROTECTION.” Sofia Vergara plays Griselda Blanco in Netflix’s Griselda. Netflix photo
