Apparently, the Trump administration's hunt for people to deport has had a negative effect on real estate in South Florida. Michael Smith from Bloomberg News tells Billy Corben why. Plus, Billy has an update on the "Miami Mafia." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What impact does the Trump administration have on Miami's real estate?
Mr. Carollo's rants would often occur while I was in the car with him, traveling along Southwest 8th Street to observe what might be occurring at the business owned or operated by Mr. Fuller and the others. This happened on more occasions than I can count.
Carollo also regularly directed other staff members to drive him along the corridor where Fullers businesses were located so he could monitor what they were doing day and night. It did not matter. Mr. Carollo would regularly allege some of those businesses were a front for Venezuelan money laundering.
When Mr. Carollo was unable to get the administration to go after Mr. Fuller and his partners, Carollo enlisted City Attorney Victoria Mendez to do his bidding. Mr. Carollo would often meet with Ms. Mendez in our office or at a few fast food restaurants near City Hall or his commission district. I believe that was a Wendy's, but his favorite is Burger King.
It became apparent, according to Mr. Suarez, to me that Ms. Mendez went out of her way to appease Mr. Carollo, who had the ability at any time to call for the commission to vote for her removal. It was common knowledge that at least one, possibly two other commissioners, as well as Mayor Francis Suarez, were not happy with Ms. Mendez serving as city attorney.
My impression was that Mr. Carollo used the possibility of terminating Ms. Mendez as a means of ensuring she carried out his wishes. Although Ms. Mendez was Carollo's primary enabler, Mr. Carollo would also rely on Mary Lugo to get city employees to provide documents or other information he could use in his vendetta against Mr. Fuller and the others.
Mary Lugo, a well-known Carollo ally. Attorneys for plaintiffs Bill Fuller and Martin Pena have brought up Lugo multiple times during this case, telling jurors she helped as Carollo used city resources to target Fuller and Pena's businesses.
I viewed Mr. Carollo's use of Ms. Lugo as a way of circumventing the city charter, which prohibited commissioners from directing city employees to undertake any actions at their request. Ms. Lugo was uniquely qualified to assist Mr. Carollo, since she was one of the top officials in the union that represents general employees in the city of Miami. Mr. Carollo hat Noriega als Alli betrachtet.
Als er der Exekutivdirektor der Miami Parking Authority war, vor Jahrzehnten, hat er viele von Carollos privaten Events gesponsert. Und so hatten sie eine interessante und komplizierte Beziehung. Und Carollo hat damals öffentlich für eine nationwidee Suche nach einem neuen Stadtmanager geholfen.
But he had always intended to vote for Art Noriega and help install him into office because he knew Art Noriega would play ball with his shady, corrupt and possibly illegal schemes. Mr. Correo leveraged the change in managers in February 2020 and the COVID lockdowns that began in March 2020 to gain control of city government.
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