Two employees at a UPS facility in Miami-Dade are facing charges in connection with an investigation into the theft of packages containing expensive electronics, authorities said.
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Jose Divine Fernandes Correia, 52, and Ruth Cristaldo, 53, were arrested Thursday on charges of organized fraud of $50,000 or more and grand theft, arrest reports said.
According to the reports, both worked the night reload shift at the UPS facility at 13350 Northwest 17th Street, with Cristaldo an over goods clerk and Fernandes Correia a package handler.
UPS security and the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office began an investigation after a series of package losses were reported by multiple shippers.
The missing items included Apple and Samsung phones, tablets and laptops.
Investigators obtained surveillance footage that showed Fernandes Correia targeting specific packages containing electronics before he removed the tracking number labels, took out the electronics and threw out the box, the reports said.
Cristaldo would then create a new label and place the item in a new box that would get sent out for delivery, the reports said.
The packages were marked to be sent to the names of legitimate companies but were sent to two different addresses in Miami, the reports said.
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On Tuesday, after watching the suspects alter a package on surveillance cameras, authorities responded to the facility and found the altered package, which contained 10 Apple MacBook laptops and three Bose headphones worth around $10,000, the reports said.
On Wednesday, authorities did the same thing and found an altered package containing 40 Apple iPhones and 2 Samsung Galaxy phones worth around $45,000 in total, the reports said.
UPS security later found at least 10 more packages stashed in the facility that weren’t labeled yet, the reports said.
According to the reports, UPS security determined that between April 2025 and the present, Cristaldo created over 198 shipping labels for packages that were sent to the two addresses, and estimated the losses at over $100,000.
Fernandes Correia and Cristaldo were booked into jail and expected to appear in bond court Friday afternoon. Attorney information wasn’t available.
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