{"id":128182,"date":"2026-01-22T19:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T19:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/128182\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T19:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T19:54:08","slug":"miami-meat-czar-at-center-of-gift-gate-received-730k-from-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/128182\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Meat Czar at Center of Gift Gate Received $730K from City"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1200\" height=\"665\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Joe-Carollo_PorkShoulderGiveaway_Turkey_Instagramjpg.jpg\" class=\"article-thumbnail-image wp-post-image\" alt=\"Two men emptying a U-Haul filled with boxes of pork shoulder\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tFormer District 3 Commissioner Joe Carollo purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of meat from El Toro Loco Meat Distribution, LLC for his annual turkey and pork shoulder giveaways. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Screenshot via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DRArfRrjGTB\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram\/@joecarollonow<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Public records reveal that the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.miaminewtimes.com\/news\/coral-gables-pd-investigates-video-of-miami-officer-accepting-gift-basket-40517230\/\">chef and restaurant owner who appeared in a video giving a luxury gift box to a Miami Police officer <\/a>has provided more than $733,700 worth of meat for City of Miami events since December 2023. That\u2019s a lot of protein.<\/p>\n<p>According to documents breaking down discretionary spending from the offices of <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.miaminewtimes.com\/news\/joe-carollo-breaks-up-with-miami-not-other-way-around-40508952\/\">then-District 3 Commissioner Joe Carollo<\/a> and District 1 Commissioner Miguel Gabela, the city has paid Aldo Episona\u2019s El Toro Loco Meat Distribution, LLC, and El Toro Loco Churrascaria (Steakhouse) hundreds of thousands of dollars for pork shoulder, frozen turkeys, and staff lunch between December 2023 to mid-December 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The records show that Carollo\u2019s office had nearly a dozen transactions with El Toro Loco Meat Distribution for his holiday pork shoulder and turkey giveaway events, totaling $666,673 over the last two years. In November 2025 alone, Carollo\u2019s office spent more than $117,000 on pork shoulder and $200,500 on frozen turkeys. (The full breakdown is provided below.)<\/p>\n<p>Notably, a <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wlrn.org\/government-politics\/2025-01-23\/carollo-bayfront-park-trust-sued\">lawsuit filed last year against Carollo<\/a>, who served as the chairman of the Bayfront Park Management Trust, by former employees Jose Suarez and Jose Canto, alleged that \u201cone of Carollo\u2019s close friends and political supporters owns El Toro Loco, and Carollo allowed the El Toro Loco food truck stationed at Bayfront Park to dig \u201ca massive, 200-foot long trench to lay electrical wire underground, aiming to steal electricity from an electric sign\u201d at the park without proper permitting or engineering surveys.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit stated that after Suarez told the food truck to remove the illegal trench and electrical wires, the truck installed a generator without a city permit. When Suarez tried to terminate El Toro Loco\u2019s license from the Trust, the complaint continues, Carollo warned \u201cthat El Toro Loco was \u2018very powerful political ally\u2019 [sic] and friend and Suarez should steer clear of any further interference.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gabela\u2019s District 1 office spent $448 at El Toro Loco Churrascaria in August 2024 for an office staff luncheon after a back-to-school giveaway event, records reveal. Additionally, El Toro Loco Meat Distribution billed his office $66,584 for 3,500 units of pork shoulder in December 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The Coral Gables Police Department is currently investigating whether Miami Police Department officer and head of Internal Affairs, Winsor Lozano, broke department rules prohibiting officers from accepting gifts after a TikTok video showed him unboxing a luxury gift package filled with premium meat and other items from Espinosa.<\/p>\n<p>District 3 El Toro Loco Spending<br \/>\nDecember 2023:<\/p>\n<p>$27,974 \u2013 Frozen turkeys for the final Thanksgiving distribution in late November 2023<br \/>\n$2,271 \u2013   Additional frozen turkeys<\/p>\n<p>January 2024:<\/p>\n<p>$1,074 \u2013  Additional pork shoulder for a holiday distribution event<\/p>\n<p>November 2024:<\/p>\n<p>$6,673 \u2013      Whole turkey (USDA Grade A) Harvest Gold label, (average weight 12-14 lb)<br \/>\n$156,000 \u2013  Whole turkey (USDA Grade A) Harvest Gold label, (average weight 12-14 lb)<\/p>\n<p>December 2024:<\/p>\n<p>12,781 \u2013   Whole turkey (USDA Grade A) Harvest Gold label (average weight 16-20 lb)<br \/>\n134,587 \u2013 USA Prime pork shoulder<\/p>\n<p>February 2025:<\/p>\n<p>$7,522 \u2013 USA Prime pork shoulder<\/p>\n<p>November 2025:<\/p>\n<p>$6,154 \u2013      USA Prime pork shoulder<br \/>\n$111,063 \u2013 USA Prime pork shoulder<br \/>\n$200,574 \u2013 Whole turkey (USDA Grade A) Harvest Gold label, (average weight 10-12 lb)<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former District 3 Commissioner Joe Carollo purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of meat from El Toro&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2161,225,227,226,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-128182","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hialeah","8":"tag-government","9":"tag-hialeah","10":"tag-hialeah-headlines","11":"tag-hialeah-news","12":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}