Two Cuban citizens — now senior citizens — who snuck into the United States in 1980 were spending their golden years allegedly selling cocaine in South Florida.
Miami police arrested Cesar Valdes, 89, and Magdaleno Medina, 73, for drug trafficking and weapons offenses after an undercover operation revealed a cocaine trafficking operation at a Miami home, authorities said.
After their arrests, police learned they had been in the country illegally for 46 years and racked up previous drug charges.
The Miami Police Department charged the pair with armed drug trafficking after an undercover drug buy, police said. Authorities did not elaborate on how or when they were tipped off to the suspected drug dealers or other details of the investigation.
Both men were booked into the Miami-Dade County Jail Sept. 9 and remain behind bars with immigration detainers, according to jail records.
The first alleged drug deal occurred Aug. 19 when an undercover officer bought $60 in cocaine from Medina, according to the arrest reports.
Miami police returned to Medina’s trailer Sept. 9 with a narcotics search warrant and found Valdes there, too. The search uncovered dozens of clear bags of cocaine and marijuana, ammunition, stolen guns, and more than $4,800, Fox News reported.
Medina faces eight felony charges, including armed trafficking in cocaine, cocaine possession with intent to sell or deliver, illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of a place for the purpose of trafficking cocaine, per NBC6 in South Florida.
Valdes is facing five similar drug- and gun-related felony charges, including cocaine trafficking, illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition as a convicted felon and grand theft of a firearm.
Officers seized a total of over 140 grams of cocaine and over 1,275 grams of marijuana, the arrest reports said.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed to Fox News that the men entered the country without inspection near Key West, Florida, on different days in May 1980.
Medina has four prior felony convictions in the United States for cocaine smuggling, drug possession and drug trafficking, an ICE spokesman said. An immigration judge issued him a final order of exclusion July 24, 1996.
Similar to a present-day final order of removal issued by an immigration judge, a final order of exclusion was the system used before April 1997.
Authorities said Valdes has a criminal history in Miami-Dade County, including cocaine possession and probation violation in the 1980s and 1990s. Valdes was issued a final order of exclusion March 10, 1993.
Under President Donald Trump, ICE officers have remained steadfast in their pursuit of arresting and removing criminal illegal immigrants, despite increased threats, physical attacks and doxxing.
ICE officials maintain: “Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S. We will find you, we will arrest you and we will deport you.”
