\n\t\t\t\t\t\tOrlando police say five people are accused of taking part in an organized fraud scheme that used stolen Electronic Benefit Transfer card information to buy thousands of dollars’ worth of energy drinks and coffee across Central Florida and make a profit.According to arrest affidavits obtained by WESH 2 News, detectives investigated 37 incidents within Orlando city limits between October 2025 and April 2026, identifying at least 29 victims whose EBT accounts were allegedly drained through unauthorized purchases. Investigators said the group stole more than $5,000 in EBT funds. Police allege the suspects used fake cards containing stolen EBT information believed to have been obtained through skimming devices. Detectives said the suspects would first make small purchases, often buying bottles of water at Wawa stores, to check whether the stolen card information worked and to see how much money remained in the accounts before making larger purchases at other stores. According to investigators, the merchandise was stashed in several storage units before being transported to a food and beverage warehouse, where police believe the products were sold for profit. The affidavits identify the suspects in the organized crime group as Carlos Ruben Gomez-Jimenez, Maite Lazara Mesa-Labrada, Carlos Luis Diaz-Jimenez, Enrique Gonzalez, and Luis Gonzalez Dominguez. Detectives described Gomez-Jimenez as the group’s “primary offender,” alleging he conducted 36 fraudulent EBT transactions during the investigation. Police said victims often discovered the thefts only after attempting to buy groceries. One victim, Gwendolyn Courtney Hunter, told WESH 2 News she couldn’t believe what she saw when she realized her EBT account had been drained in October 2025.”I was devastated because I’ve been waiting all month to purchase what little items I got,” Hunter said. “Why would you do that to somebody like that? I mean, you don’t even know the person, or you could really honestly care less.”As of Saturday evening, Gomez-Jimenez, Mesa-Labrada, and Diaz-Jimenez remained in the Orange County jail. WESH 2 News reached out to the Orlando Police Department to confirm the whereabouts of Enrique Gonzalez and Luis Gonzalez Dominguez.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Orlando police say five people are accused of taking part in an organized fraud scheme that used stolen Electronic Benefit Transfer card information to buy thousands of dollars’ worth of energy drinks and coffee across Central Florida and make a profit.<\/p>\n
According to arrest affidavits obtained by WESH 2 News, detectives investigated 37 incidents within Orlando city limits between October 2025 and April 2026, identifying at least 29 victims whose EBT accounts were allegedly drained through unauthorized purchases. Investigators said the group stole more than $5,000 in EBT funds. <\/p>\n
Police allege the suspects used fake cards containing stolen EBT information believed to have been obtained through skimming devices. Detectives said the suspects would first make small purchases, often buying bottles of water at Wawa stores, to check whether the stolen card information worked and to see how much money remained in the accounts before making larger purchases at other stores. <\/p>\n
According to investigators, the merchandise was stashed in several storage units before being transported to a food and beverage warehouse, where police believe the products were sold for profit. <\/p>\n
The affidavits identify the suspects in the organized crime group as Carlos Ruben Gomez-Jimenez, Maite Lazara Mesa-Labrada, Carlos Luis Diaz-Jimenez, Enrique Gonzalez, and Luis Gonzalez Dominguez. Detectives described Gomez-Jimenez as the group’s “primary offender,” alleging he conducted 36 fraudulent EBT transactions during the investigation. <\/p>\n
Police said victims often discovered the thefts only after attempting to buy groceries. One victim, Gwendolyn Courtney Hunter, told WESH 2 News she couldn’t believe what she saw when she realized her EBT account had been drained in October 2025.<\/p>\n
“I was devastated because I’ve been waiting all month to purchase what little items I got,” Hunter said. “Why would you do that to somebody like that? I mean, you don’t even know the person, or you could really honestly care less.”<\/p>\n
As of Saturday evening, Gomez-Jimenez, Mesa-Labrada, and Diaz-Jimenez remained in the Orange County jail. WESH 2 News reached out to the Orlando Police Department to confirm the whereabouts of Enrique Gonzalez and Luis Gonzalez Dominguez. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orlando police say five people are accused of taking part in an organized fraud scheme that used stolen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2293,11578,917,117059,117058,117061,117060,13959,7441,117063,139,141,140,1120,132,117062,285,6411],"class_list":["post-273917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-arrest-affidavit","tag-detective","tag-dozen","tag-ebt-account","tag-ebt-fraud-scheme","tag-enrique-gonzalez","tag-gomez-jimenez","tag-group","tag-investigator","tag-luis-gonzalez-dominguez","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-orlando-police","tag-police","tag-profit","tag-suspect","tag-victim"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273917","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=273917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}