2 arrested in connection with the theft of 5 million medical gloves in Broward County
Two men have been arrested in connection with the theft of about $1 million worth of medical gloves meant for hospitals from a Coral Springs warehouse last week, police said.
A tip led detectives to a warehouse in Medley on Friday, where they found some of the stolen gloves. They then returned to the warehouse Monday afternoon and arrested Tabit Lejardi, 39, and Michael Henao, 36, on a charge of dealing in stolen property, according to Medley police.
Detectives said the two were involved in selling the stolen gloves, and additional charges may be pending, said Medley police spokesman Officer Deglys Chavarria. Detectives are still trying to figure out if they were involved in the actual theft.
The gloves were part of a shipment that was stolen from a Medgluv warehouse in the area of Northwest 41st Street and Coral Ridge Drive in Coral Springs last week. Medgluv is a medical glove supplier.
About five million medical gloves had been stolen, Medgluv’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing Richard Grimes told the Miami Herald last week. He said the gloves were meant for hospitals across Florida, Ohio and Illinois.
Surveillance cameras recorded the theft, which took only minutes.
Detectives said they were able to recover a portion of the stolen gloves and returned the PPE to Medgluv. The 11 pallets of recovered gloves are valued at $219,000, police said.
Chavarria said detectives are hoping they will be able to track down the rest of the missing gloves.
Medley police said additional arrests are expected. The FBI is also involved in the investigation because the gloves were federally registered.
Lejardi and Henao were released on bond Tuesday morning.
Anyone with information that can help detectives is asked to call Medley police at 305-883-2047 or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.