Florida Monthly magazine officially crowns Vero Beach as Florida's "Friendliest Small Town"

Florida Monthly magazine names Vero Beach as the state's official "Friendliest Small Town" in its "Florida's Best Of 2011" special edition September issue. Overall, 14 Indian River County, Florida attractions and businesses received accolades which include, McKee Botanical Garden, the Environmental Learning Center, the Vero Beach High School Athletics Program, the Vero Beach Book Center, Deep Six Watersports, the Vero Beach Museum of Art and the Sebastian Inlet State Park.

More than 115,000 print subscribers of Florida Monthly magazine participated in the 16th annual competition as they nominated their Florida favorites across 139 different categories. Readers write in their choice in each category and then submit their selection via e-mail or snail mail to publisher Doug Cifers. The Altamonte Springs based magazine collates the results and announces the winners in its September edition which is out now.
"We have some people who have participated in this every year since the first year," said Cifers. "And most of the time, you can attribute that to a very aggressive marketing campaign by a local chamber of commerce."

Tourism Director Susan Hunt at the Indian River Chamber of Commerce took action and encouraged local organizations to participate in this year's contest. Hunt e-mailed all of the chamber's members and asked them to submit names for consideration.

"We asked people to support our community by sending in nominations for the 'Best of Florida' contest," said Hunt. "And then we encouraged our businesses to have their customers go on-line and vote for them."

Cifers said that many organizations and businesses ask their customers to go to the Florida Monthly magazine website to vote for them.
"The whole idea is to provide a third-party endorsement," said Cifers. "We really have a lot of fun with this contest, and it's amazing the kind of nominations we receive. For years, we had a category called 'Best Hospital Food' and you would be surprised how many hospitals were competing with one another to win."

Winners of Florida Monthly's "Best Of 2011"survey receive a certificate and are profiled in the September edition. Florida Monthly is only available for purchase by subscription or through FloridaMagazine.com and cannot be found on any newsstand.

For a complete list of winners, go to http://floridamagazine.com/bestof2011.html

Would you like a rug with that heroin?

An Oriental Rug dealer in Vero Beach is facing 20 years in prison, a $1 million fine and up to three years of supervision after release from prison for allegedly smuggling and dealing pure heroin.

Jafar Mohammad Falasiri, 61, was arrested by Florida state authorities after federal law enforcement discovered 120 bar-shaped packages that contained more than 6 pounds of suspected illegal narcotics tightly rolled up in rugs shipped from the Middle East to Falasiri's rug dealership in the 2300 block of U.S. 1 in Vero Beach.

Originally authorities charged Falasiri with importation and conspiracy to distribute heroin but court papers filed July 28 say Falasiri was charged simply with importing opium into the United States. The charges were dropped after defense attorney Gregory Eisenmenger of Viera claimed his client is addicted to drugs and imported narcotics for his personal use.

The FBI affidavit in the case states, after receiving a bundle of rugs at the Vero Beach business on January 28th there was a a black substance wrapped in clear plastic and cloth Inside one of the 10-foot-by-14-foot Persian rugs. An informant for the FBI said Falasiri "took a small portion of the black substance and proceeded to smoke it." And, "The entire binding of the rug was filled with the opium, which was also packaged in clear plastic and cloth."

Falasiri received his rugs from Iran and despite a federally enforced embargo against that nation Falasiri has not been not charged with importation of embargoed merchandise.



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