Steve Bannon's porn and meth house: 'You have no idea what kind of evil stuff went on'

The Florida 'party house' previously occupied by Steve Bannon had quite a reputation.

When award-winning underwater cinematographer Lawrence Curtis moved into the lush Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, he had no idea the house he was renting would become a national story.

But that’s because he didn’t know the prior tenant was Steve Bannon, adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and now the chief strategist in the White House.

In March 2017, the Washington Post published a profile on Bannon that included some shocking details, including the bizarre case of 1794 Opechee Drive, the house in Miami that Bannon claimed as his residence, along with his third ex-wife.

The Miami-Dade Police Department’s public corruption unit launched an investigation into whether Bannon had fraudulently registered to vote in that county. Bannon had signed the lease, listed himself as an occupant, and paid the rent every month.

One of Bannon’s colleagues, Arlene Delgado, testified that she had met with Bannon at the house on Opechee Drive, which he described as “my house,” where she saw “boxes, papers, and effects” that indicated he lived there. They met, according to Delgado, because Bannon had moved to Florida and wanted to increase the presence of the far-right Breitbart News, of which he was executive chair.

The meeting was corroborated by an email exchange between Bannon and Delgado.

Bannon’s ex-wife testified that he did indeed stay at the house with her, though she did not feel “comfortable” answering any further questions.

In the final report dismissing the investigation, law enforcement found “evidence that tends to indicate that [Bannon] did not intend to or actually did reside” in that county, but there was not sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Bannon had knowingly committed voter registration fraud.

The Washington Post focused primarily on the bizarre fact that Bannon listed the Opechee Drive house as his place of residence, despite living in California. The article lightly touched on the state of disrepair in which Bannon left the house — including a bathtub apparently destroyed by acid.

But the truth turns out to have been much worse than that.

When Curtis first saw the house, the real estate agent, Beatriz Portela, told him the previous tenants “were not very upstanding people” and had “severely damaged” the property.

They had “put padlocks on all the doors, installed video cameras, and had ruined the bathtub, kitchen counter, and floor.”

Worse, though, was that it had been a “party house,” she said, known for frequent drug use.

Carlos Herrera, who owned the house with with his wife, Andreina Morales, painted a picture of what initially seemed to be a normal tenancy but soon evolved into an almost daily parade of debauchery and drug use, including run-ins with the police.

“The conclusion is she was probably cooking meth in here,” Herrera said of Bannon's ex-wife. That would have explained the damage done to the bathtub and kitchen sink.
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