None of the extreme gun violence in our state ever seems to bother Marco Rubio. We might finally have an indication as to why:
Up until last Wednesday, the big news out of the Florida debate between Rubio and Murphy was Rubio’s promise to actually show up for work this time if he was re-elected—and even that low bar came with a qualifier.
Yet this race has repeatedly focused on Marco Rubio’s serious trouble with honesty: ranging from his lying about his finances, lying about his family fleeing Castro, lying about his intentions for office and then trying to cover it up. Now comes a new revelation that the Miami New Times discovered reviewing previously unreported testimony in a mountain of court papers. Univision learned about Rubio’s family ties to the drug trade back in 2011; however, Rubio has consistently denied he knew anything about it.
Seems odd this then:
The testimony, part of a 1987 federal case against Rubio's brother-in law, makes clear the West Kendall residence, where Rubio also worked for months after moving out, was an important hub for the $75 million cocaine operation. Two law enforcement officials who worked on the Cocaine Cowboys-era case say they doubt anyone could have lived and worked there regularly without catching a hint of what was up.
“Kilos of cocaine” filled a spare bedroom, where it was sliced into breaks and packed inside cigarette cases to smuggle around the US. Marco Rubio lived in this house for part of the summer in 1985 and, according to him, knew nothing about what was going on.
Marco Rubio wrote in his autobiography that the house was a part of his "fondest childhood memory”. His brother-in-law owned the house, and Marco and his parents stayed there while the father looked for a new home. The brother-in-law was named Orlando Cicilia, and he was a major player in one of the most widespread and violent drug gangs in Miami. The gang was run by Mario Tabraue, who killed a federal agent and had him cut up with a circular saw. The man also allegedly ordered a hit on his first wife: she was gunned down with nine bullets by a 16-year old who worked for Tabraue.
The West Kendall house was the “hub” for huge cocaine shipments---right at the time Marco was living there. Tabraue and Cicilia were finally busted in 1987 as part of a major sting operation. Marco said he was “stunned” and that he and his parents “never suspected” any illicit wrongdoing. If you really stretch your imagination, it could be possible. However, as Mike Fisten, the Miami-Date homicide detective who is a writing a book on the case stated, “for anyone to argue that teens or adults living at this time in Miami didn’t know their family members were in the coke business is total horseshit.”
Marco has kept a close relationship with Orlando Cicilia. He used his power in the Florida Legislature to help him obtain a real-estate license without disclosing his relationship with him. I doubt any of this will have much affect on his Senate race, despite his hypocrisy on standing in the way of restoring voting rights for felons who served their time—as well as his constant faux outrage over Hillary's email servers. (I'd love for Hillary to respond, "Really?")
I’m more outraged that he continues to stand by a sexual predator for president, but I am most outraged that Rubio, who is our current sitting Senator, has refused to do anything to stop the deadly rampage of violence in our state. My county just passed 100 homicides from gun violence, to include 14 dead just this week. (This is not even counting the Pulse massacre.) Marco has stood in the way of all common sense reforms, such as extra vetting for assault rifles and explosives to people on the terror watch list.
Although he did find time to headline an an anti-gay hate rally right after Pulse, which was made all the more despicable by him using the victims as the excuse as to why he was running again.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Marco Rubio is disgusting. I would think that witnessing the violence of the drug trade up close would have at least opened his eyes to trying to curb some of our extraordinary gun violence. Instead, Marco has done everything he can to make it easier for drug lords to commit violent acts against our citizens.
Maybe this is just a trait that runs in his family.