A home burglary in Coral Gables last week led detectives to a massive identity theft ring that is sure to produce more arrests, authorities said in a news conference on Friday.
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The suspects are 40-year-old Geybert Alexander Garcia and 24-year-old Melany Perdomo. They are accused of breaking into the home of Adam Hlavaty and Henry Parra, a couple killed in the Aug. 19 helicopter crash in Kenya that took the lives of multiple people with ties to South Florida.
Police said Garcia and Perdomo broke into the Coral Gables home and ransacked the place over two days, stealing business documents, jewelry, luxury cars and artwork, including a sculpture worth about $500,000. They were allegedly caught with the couple’s personal belongings, Range Rover and Porsche Taycan.
Coral Gables Police Chief Ed Hudak said officers tracked the vehicles and some other belongings to a home where the suspects were arrested. They searched the property, described as a “ground-zero of identity theft,” and found firearms, laptops, documents and passports.
The chief also said that the couple died on a Wednesday, and by Monday, fake IDs using their address had been printed.
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“These people we believe right now were targeted the day they were killed in that crash, which I find reprehensible,” Hudak said. “We found, and I mean mounds of evidentiary-valued material within that residence… we have basically kicked a beehive of a criminal enterprise.”
The U.S. Secret Service, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) are also now involved in the investigation.
In a pre-trial detention hearing on Thursday, a judge upheld Judge Mindy Glazer’s initial decision to hold the couple without bond. Perdomo was also behind bars on an immigration hold.
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