The Nation - News from May 29, 1986
About 150 Cuban refugees pelted guards with rocks and set fire to mattresses and furniture, causing extensive damage when officials tried to break up a shoe-theft extortion ring operating inside Krome Detention Center west of Miami. Some of the inmates tried to escape and one guard was slightly injured, but guards “fired shots in the air and they got the message,” said refugee official Perry Rivkind. The incident began when guards attempted to search about 150 Cuban felons believed involved in an extortion ring in which they would steal shoes from detainees and rent them back, Rivkind said.
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