According to local law enforcement officials, more than 100 people—including at least 41 illegal immigrants—have been arrested in Florida for allegedly robbing and defrauding victims of Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said that within the past three weeks, looting patrols in the county have apprehended 45 people on 68 crimes, including trespassing, grand theft, armed robbery, burglary, loitering and prowling, and destruction.
“They’re going into people’s homes, they’re taking stuff, they’re rummaging through their things,” Gualtieri stated.
An operation that allegedly targeted unlicensed contractors resulted in the arrest of an additional 58 people. According to Gualtieri, the majority of their schemes involved charging consumers $250 million for services they never planned to do.
“This is the epitome of people trying to exploit others when they’re down and when they’re out, and they’re trying to rebuild and they’ve got nothing,” Gualtieri stated.
Gualtieri stated at a press conference Thursday that at least 41 of the 45 suspects detained by anti-looting patrols around the border islands of Pinellas County are undocumented immigrants. According to him, almost all of the suspects were from Central or South America.
Typically, suspects apprehended in contracting scams volunteered to perform plumbing, roofing, and electrical work, billing over $250 million in total.
One suspect even had business cards that were used to pose as a real contracting company, Gualtieri noted.
“People offering to do work on their property, but, in some cases, have no intention of doing the work. In other cases, are unqualified to do the work and, in all of these cases, are unlicensed to do the work,” Gualtieri stated.
The sheriff went on to say that although his staff made contact with 196 other people who were in inappropriate beach neighborhoods, officers lacked probable cause to make an arrest. According to him, 163 of them were discovered to be undocumented immigrants.
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“So, we made contact with them and told them to get out,” Gualtieri stated. “We’ve never seen anything of this magnitude before. We’ve never seen this influx of people from out of the area that are clearly just here to steal and to pilfer and to do bad things and to target these vulnerable people.”
According to Gualtieri, almost everyone detained during the three-week operation had a lengthy criminal history.
Gualtieri stated that in order to keep those who shouldn’t be on the barrier islands off them, the sheriff’s office will have dozens of additional deputies on patrol day and night.
