Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s not a victimless crime,\u201d Uthmeier said. \u201cThese consumers are the ones who suffer. Consumers are the ones who pay for this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz, joining Uthmeier, said the stolen merchandise has been recovered.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd more arrests are forthcoming,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The suspects \u2014 identified as Naychel Alvarez Jerez, 36; John Kevin Romero, 22; Josue Rego Romero, 29; Alberto Socorro Alvarez, 28; Jose Carlos Perez Salgado, 30; Antonio Perez Torres, 26; and Lissette Dearmas Rodriguez, 34 \u2014 were all arrested in Martin County.<\/p>\n
R. Scott Shalley, the president and CEO of the Florida Retail Federation, said the focus is on safety as much as property.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a fight to protect product, but more importantly, Floridians and associates in our stores,\u201d Shalley said. \u201cWe want customers to have a safe and happy shopping experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Investigators say the group is responsible for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of beauty products, specifically targeting stores like CVS, Walgreens, Publix, Burlington and Ulta. <\/p>\n
The shoplifters are accused of stealing the products and providing them to Jerez, who authorities said sold them on OfferUp and Facebook Marketplace.<\/p>\n
In 2024, Florida stiffened penalties for those who commit these types of crimes. Florida Senior Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Chris Olowin explained the legal ramifications.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you commit three or more retail thefts with 20 or more items stolen within a 120-day period, it is a second-degree felony, punishable by a maximum of 15 years in the Department of Corrections,\u201d Olowin said. \u201cThere are also enhancements if you have two or more convictions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 During a news conference in Miami on Wednesday, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced the arrests…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-178969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}