Miami-area arrests made in $1 million fraud scheme involving stolen cars across Florida

Michelle Marchante
·2 min read
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Thirteen people in Miami-Dade were arrested in connection with an organized auto theft operation that police say raked in more than a million dollars selling stolen rental cars to dealerships across Florida.

Miami-Dade police announced the arrests in a news release Thursday night and said the auto theft sting involved more than 30 vehicles, “reaching sales of over one million dollars in stolen automobiles.”

Here’s how police say the operation worked:

After stealing vehicles from major car rental companies, the group would create fraudulent vehicle identification numbers (VIN) for the cars and would then sell them to several car dealerships throughout Florida.

The people arrested live across Miami-Dade County and range in age. The youngest is 21, the oldest is 60 and all had warrants out for their arrests. Some live in Miami Beach, Doral, Hialeah and Miami’s Little Havana. Others live in unincorporated areas such as Fontainebleau, Westchester, South Miami-Dade and near Coral Gables.

Here’s who police arrested on various charges relating to the operation:

Merilyn Maria Silverio-Valverde, 21, Carlos Alberto Naranjo-Escalada, 22, and 28-year-olds Mailen Armas Espinosa, Ariel Azcuy Ramos and Claudia Pozas Sanchez; Ivan Alonso Fonseca and Adriel Garcia Rosales, both 30, and 32-year-olds Patricia Tatiana Roque-Pereira and Julio Lazaro Paez-Arias; Andy Crespo-Tarrasa and Yuleismy Figueredo, both 37, and Georgina Marta Delfino, 46, and Ivan Alonso Perez, 60.

The first to get arrested was Crespo-Tarrasa. He was a passenger in a car that was pulled over on Okeechobee Road by Hialeah police on Sept. 7. He was arrested after a records check showed there was a warrant for him out of Clayton County, Georgia, according to his affidavit. The warrant was for “conspiracy to commit; possession of tools for commission of a crime; financial transaction card fraud; financial identity fraud.”

Everyone else was arrested this week — starting with Ramos, who was detained at Miami International Airport on Saturday, Oct. 1 upon arriving from Cuba — on felony charges for organized fraud of at least $50,000, grand theft, and possessing or selling a vehicle with an altered ID.

A search of Miami-Dade court records Friday only show attorneys listed for Ramos, Delfino and Naranjo-Escalada. Ramos attorney declined to comment. The Miami Herald has contacted the attorneys for Delfino and Naranjo-Escalada.

Miami-Dade police said this crackdown was made possible by working with police in Miami, Coral Gables, Doral, Hialeah, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, as well as the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Detectives also think there might be more victims and are asking anyone who thinks they fell prey to the group’s schemes to call the MDPD Seaport Operations Bureau at 305-547-0777.

This article will be updated.