Illegal immigrants, 89 and 73, accused of armed drug trafficking decades after sneaking into US
Forty-six years after Key West. A $60 buy. Stolen guns in the trailer.
Summary
- Fox News reports Cesar Valdes, 89, and Magdaleno Medina, 73, both Cuban nationals, are behind bars after Miami police said they sold cocaine and kept stolen guns. ICE told Fox both had been in the country illegally for more than 45 years.
- Court records say an undercover Miami officer bought $60 of cocaine from Medina on Aug. 19. On Sept. 9 officers returned to the trailer with a narcotics warrant, found Valdes there, and recovered dozens of bags of cocaine and marijuana, ammunition, stolen guns, and more than $4,800.
- An ICE spokesman said both men entered without inspection near Key West on different days in May 1980. Medina has four prior U.S. felony convictions for cocaine smuggling, drug possession, and drug trafficking.
- An immigration judge issued Medina a final order of exclusion on July 24, 1996. Fox notes those orders predate the April 1997 switch to modern removal proceedings. The paper trail of how he stayed after 1996 was not in the court file Fox reviewed.
Commentary
A Miami dock dad still counts a night haul in motor oil and knows a 1996 exclusion order is supposed to mean a plane, not a trailer with stolen iron and a $60 bag. He did not pay the levy so a May 1980 Key West crossing could sit 46 years on a linoleum floor.
Aug. 19 buy. Sept. 9 warrant. Four prior felonies. One 1996 stamp that never became a removal. The vinyl chair in that Miami-Dade wing still holds the honest household that already bought the lock.
Look every working father who still clocks a diesel night in the eye and answer this: if a 1996 exclusion order already sat on the file, who still owns the next trailer a 46-year stay can stock with stolen guns?
Comments
May 1980 Key West. July 24, 1996 order. Four prior felonies. Keep those stamps.
I stood a gate so an exclusion order still meant a plane. A $60 bag is not a weather report.
Aug. 19 buy. Sept. 9 warrant. Stolen guns and $4,800. Print the three.
Allied ports still treat a 46-year stay after exclusion as a breach, not a senior hobby.
Valdes 89. Medina 73. Final order before April 1997. File the ages and the stamp.
I still smell diesel at 2 a.m. I want the next trailer empty of a stolen pistol.
A Key West crossing is not a vibe. It is a warning the street already paid.
A 1996 order next to a 2026 warrant is a second border around every honest dock.
Fox printed ICE, Key West 1980, and the 1996 exclusion. Argue those nouns.
Hold the warrant. Enforce the 1996 stamp. A 46-year trailer is not a souvenir.
