A taxi driver is facing charges after police said he targeted drunk Miami Beach clubgoers by stealing their phones and using them to make fraudulent transactions.
Reynoso Osias, 48, was arrested Tuesday on eight charges including kidnapping, organized scheme to defraud, offenses against computer users, unlawful use of a communications device, and strongarm robbery conspiracy, Miami-Dade jail records showed.
According to arrest reports, Osias was arrested following an investigation into a pattern of cases involving the theft of cellphones in Miami Beach’s entertainment district followed by multiple fraudulent transactions using the victims’ phones.
RAW: Reynoso Osias, 48, was arrested Tuesday on eight charges including kidnapping, organized scheme to defraud, offenses against computer users, unlawful use of a communications device, and strongarm robbery conspiracy, Miami-Dade jail records showed.
One incident happened back on June 14 when a victim said he left a club on Washington Avenue and was approached by a woman who befriended him.
The man said he had been drinking and his recollection was “sparse” but said at one point the woman grabbed his phone and ran off before he heard a man yell “get in.”
Surveillance video showed the woman get into a taxi and leave, and about five minutes later, footage showed the taxi stop on 13th Street where the woman got out and approached an intoxicated man laying on the sidewalk outside a bar.
The woman went through his pockets and removed his phone, then unlocked it with his face and fled in the taxi, the reports said.
Multiple fraudulent transactions were later made including at a Target store, the reports said.
Osias was later identified as the getaway driver for the female suspect, according to the reports. The female suspect was identified, but the reports don’t say whether she was arrested.
Another incident happened on June 28, when a victim told police he’d been at a club on Washington Avenue where he became intoxicated and was possibly drugged, reports said.
He later noticed his phone had been stolen and there were multiple fraudulent transactions conducted via his phone included money being transferred out of his bank accounts, according to the reports.
Security camera footage showed the victim intoxicated outside the club before a cab stops next to him and he enters, the reports said.
The man said he hadn’t called for or hailed a taxi and didn’t recall entering it.
A short time later, the man was found by officers after he was dropped off in a random area on 15th Street, the reports said.
A license plate reader captured the taxi’s tag and was learned that it had been stopped twice in recent days by police while being driven by Osias, the reports said.
“Based on similar cases currently being investigated by your affiant it is believed that Osias targeted the victim and lured him into the taxi, restrained the victim as he drove the victim around with the intention to steal the victim’s cellular device to commit fraud, thus kidnapping him,” the reports said. “Further, this is part of a systematic, ongoing course of conduct with intent to defraud one of more persons, or obtain property by false or fraudulent pretenses, promises, or representations.”
Investigators reviewed surveillance video from multiple days that showed the taxi driving around Miami Beach’s entertainment district and loitering outside a club, the reports said.
There were multiple hours of surveillance footage in which the taxi didn’t pick up a fare, police said.
When Osias was taken into custody police found eight iPhones in a plastic bag under the driver’s seat in the taxi, the reports said.
Osias, who the reports said lives in Miami Gardens, was booked into jail. Attorney information wasn’t available.