We know that conventions and business travelers like to visit Miami. According to MiamiHerald, national street gangs like to meetup and vacation here too:
“Authorities believe members of nationally recognized street gangs turned two largely abandoned warehouses in South Miami-Dade into a sprawling meeting place that included rooms designated for sex, beatings, interrogations and even gun target practice.
Inside one warehouse, investigators found wall after wall adorned with colorful graffiti associated with gangs more typically found in Chicago and New York.
Hardly any of the graffiti in either warehouse appears painted over by rivals—a sign investigators worry may show members meeting for some sort of unity conference.
The following is what they found, according to sources close to the probe.
In the fire-damaged warehouse, one room has a couch topped with green padding. Above it on the wall is a blackboard scrawled with the words ``The Beating Couch.’‘
Written on a wall there, nicknames such as ‘‘Jarhead,’’ ‘‘Batboy’’ and ‘‘Onyx.’’ A date and a time found scrawled on the wall seems to document the warehouses’ recent use: ‘‘1-15-06’’ and ``2:30 p.m.’‘
Investigators also found two separate rooms featuring one sole mattress each—and discarded condoms on the floor.
Another room appeared to be for interrogation: It had a large cage with a single chair behind the wire.
A main room has walls covered in colorful graffiti art, more commonly seen in cities with entrenched gang culture such as Chicago and New York. This type of graffiti suggests a link to gang alliances such as Folk Nation and People Nation, which includes Latin Kings.
Names spray-painted on the walls include unfamiliar groups such as ‘‘Chicago United Project.’’ Images of the unfamiliar graffiti will be sent to a national gang intelligence center for analysis.
One room appears to have been turned into an indoor shooting range. Torn paper targets were found attached to walls.
Another room appears designated for beating people up. The floor is splotched with what appears to be dried blood. A yellow skull-and-crossbones is spray-painted on the wall and floor.
It’s unclear who, if anybody, was actually hurt there—but gangs often beat up new members for initiation.
It’s also a mystery how long gang members have been congregating at the warehouses. Also unclear: how activity—traffic, noise, even possible gun fire—went unnoticed so close to the tarmac of a military runway.
On Friday night, members of the county’s Multi-Agency Gang Task Force, surveilling the warehouses, arrested two teenagers for trespassing. Their connection to the warehouses was unclear. Sources say one had a BB gun.”
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