A Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami is falling under heightened scrutiny amid reports that South American strippers are posing as paralegals and smuggling in contraband for imprisoned, wealthy drug lords.

The drug lords reportedly hire lawyers who then list the women as "legal assistants," which grants them access to the prisoners, the Miami New Times reports.

"They take off their tops and let the guys touch them," veteran defense attorney Hugo Rodriguez told the paper's Riptide blog. "The majority of these young, very attractive women are noncitizens brought in exclusively for the purposes of visiting the FDC. Any lawyer can sign a form and designate a legal assistant. There is no way of verifying it. The process is being abused."

According to an ongoing investigation by Riptide, the so-called legal assistants are also smuggling in assorted items, including issues of Playboy, feeding alcohol to an inmate through the prison bars using a straw and sneaking in a purse containing $3,000.

Recently, one of the women posing as a legal assistant was caught on police video stripping for an inmate inside the prison's Special Housing Unit. She has subsequently been banned from the FDC.

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