Dozens of checks stolen from the mail. Florida Keys sheriff suspects it’s an inside job

Monroe County sheriff’s detectives have arrested seven people — so far — in a far-reaching, check-stealing ring that investigators say began in November and netted thieves more than $175,000 since.

But the Florida Keys’ top cop says he not only suspects more people are involved, but that at least one U.S. Postal Service employee is the key to the operation because all of the stolen checks were either put in a mail box for pickup or dropped off at a post office on the island chain.

“Obviously, we were concerned about inside activity,” Sheriff Rick Ramsay told the Miami Herald on Thursday.

Despite their suspicion, Ramsay and his detectives say from the beginning there has been a seeming lack of both cooperation and interest from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the agency that goes after crimes involving the Post Office.

“They never really took it seriously,” Ramsay said, adding that he’s confused as to why considering the crime at its heart is a federal matter that is likely also occurring elsewhere.

“If it’s happening here, it’s happening across the country, he said.

Detectives say their most telling piece of evidence of the operation’s organization is that after the first person arrested — 39-year-old Maygret Izquierdo-Martinez from Hialeah — was picked up in January, reports of stolen checks in the Keys have stopped. Before her arrest, detectives received 57 fraudulent check reports, all fitting the same pattern.

“This is an organized scheme, an organized group, and organized conspiracy of people who are doing this,” Ramsay said.

Detective Biandrea Swire wrote in a March 17 report on the case that “the offenders prey on the vulnerability of the victim by placing their checks made payable to businesses in the mailbox; the checks are then intercepted and fraudulently deposited into other bank accounts, leaving the victim responsible for the loss of their hard-earned funds.”

Most of the suspects arrested so far live in Miami-Dade County, but one is from Orlando and another from Michigan, according to the sheriff’s office.

Many of the checks taken are in the $2,000-range and for things like paying the cable or electric bill, said Detective Sgt. David Fernandez, a lead investigator of the case. He added that the largest, however, is a check for $25,000 that was someone’s quarterly donation to Baptist Health.

Fernandez told the Herald that the case would be easier if he had more cooperation from the Postal Inspection Service. At first, the federal agency seemed interested, asking detectives for their intelligence. But they have not reciprocated to date, according to Fernandez, and have ceased inquiring about the case.

He’s requested information from the Postal Service that includes a list of employees who work in the Keys, as well as mail carriers and their routes. Fernandez said this could be valuable intelligence that his team could use to establish a link from where the checks are being intercepted in the Keys and where mail is being sorted on the mainland.

“We’ve had no luck,” he said.

The Postal Inspection Service did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the case.

The other people arrested in connection with the case are Duniel Hernandez, 39, from Hialeah, Deny Roque, 35, from Michigan, William Ramirez Rivero, 27, from Miami, Yanierki Frances Abreu, 39, from Miami, Ernesto Padron, 40, from Orlando, and Adalberto Bello Vega, 33, from Hialeah, according to the sheriff’s office.

All have since been released from county jail and could not be reached for comment.

To date, however, detectives have gleaned most of their information from Izquierdo-Martinez, who, like the others, is not cooperating in their investigation, Fernandez said. The more they look into accounts she’s created to deposit the money, the more they find she’s opened more, the detective said.

She’s been arrested twice more as additional fraudulent checks have been linked to her, according to court records.

This makes him fear that although no new reports have come in, there aren’t others pending, pointing out that sometimes it takes months for people’s banks to report back to them problems with checks they’ve written.

Izquierdo-Martinez’s attorney did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on the case.

“It just continues and continues and continues. It’s definitely not over, and we always find more,” Fernandez said.

The sheriff’s office is asking anyone with information on the case to call (305) 289-2430.