Miami, Florida – The local police department yesterday broke up a big theft ring in a neighborhood in the northwest part of Miami-Dade. According to the police department, the police found a huge amount of stolen stuff, worth almost a million dollars, in a simple-looking house after executing a search warrant on Wednesday this week. Police Chief Manny Morales confirmed that officers found expensive electronics, drugs, guns, and a lot of money among the other things.
Miami police took out lots of boxes with stolen items
The house, which is located at the corner of Northwest 24th Avenue and Northwest 15th Street, was full of evidence. After the findings, authorities took out tens of some very large boxes full of stolen items.
Police Chief Manny Morales was in charge and leading the operation himself. He called the owner of the property, which is also the main suspect in the case, a “real-life Grinch.” Responding crew was able to fulfil a truck with boxes, but that was only part of what authorities found in the property.
The house looked normal from the outside, but looked like a store inside
The house looked just like any other house in the area from the outside, but the tricky part is actually what was happening inside. Police said the inside of the house was like a store and the main suspect was offering various kinds of products including power drills and other similar tools, strong windows, alcohol, and even frozen food.
“We’re talking anywhere from hundreds of drills, impact windows, large quantities of liquor and alcohol, even frozen foods,” Morales said. “It looks like a store — he’s got shelves, the rooms are separated. He’s got one room for power tools, he’s got one room for alcohol, he’s got one room for over-the-counter medication.”
The fact that the items offered in the house were sorted in different rooms and everything was in place suggests that the suspect was in business for extended period time.
The investigation started with a drug warrant and led detectives to this house on Wednesday. Morales said it was a well-run theft ring, trading stolen items for drugs.
“They would bring all the stolen retail property here and they would exchange it for narcotics,” he said.
Miami police confirms only one arrest, bystander says two people were arrested
A local resident, who witnessed the police response on Wednesday, allegedly saw two people being arrested at around 1 p.m., but the police only confirmed one arrest. Crimes like this, according to Morales, have impact on everyone in the area because operations like this raise store prices for everyone.
As of writing of this article, the police didn’t release the identity of the suspect. As of now, police haven’t officially filed charges against the suspect, but he faces variety of charges from armed drug trafficking to retail theft.
Police also confirmed that they have been closely working with local stores of famous brands like Home Depot, TJ Maxx, CVS and other local stores to get the stolen items back. In situations like this one, stores are tracking the stolen items via barcod.
As more details about this incident become available, we will update the story.
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