MIAMI (AP) – Federal authorities say a ring of Venezuelans living in southern Florida and Mexico stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in U.S. government stimulus checks from people struggling financially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jesus Felipe Linares Andrade, 34, has been charged with conspiracy to steal government funds and identity theft, the Miami Herald reported.
Federal prosecutors said up to four more “co-conspirators” originally from Venezuela could be added to an indictment.
The indictment states that Linares and the unnamed co-conspirators are accused of stealing the stimulus checks and cashing them with “fraudulent” ID, the Herald reported.
Linares was arrested in May, pleaded not guilty and is being detained without obligation. Defense attorney David Scott Markus declined to comment to the newspaper on Tuesday.
The Herald reported that Linares had interacted with two informants in an undercover FBI operation.
In January, the FBI informant met with one of the four co-conspirators in the parking lot of a mall near Miami to discuss the redemption of about 30 government checks valued at $ 36,000, the indictment said. The checks were each addressed to different US taxpayers with addresses in Mexico.
In April, Linares met with the two FBI informants at another mall in the Miami area to discuss picking up a UPS package from a post office in Deerfield Beach, the newspaper reported. The package contained 416 checks valued at approximately $ 249,000.
The affidavit said Linares made arrangements to collect the package in mid-April and then put it in the trunk of the car that the two informants were driving. Later that month, Linares spoke to informants again about coordinating the receipt of approximately $ 34,476 in “laundered funds” from economic checks and the delivery of an additional 226 treasury checks valued at approximately $ 135,000.
Later in April, Linares met again with informants in Miami.
“During the meeting, Linares placed an envelope in the vehicle that contained over $ 150,000 in stolen US financial checks and over 30 identification documents,” the affidavit read. The documents contained some copies of driver’s licenses that matched the names on the checks.
The Associated Press
