{"id":276184,"date":"2026-05-19T05:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T05:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/276184\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T05:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T05:13:08","slug":"fake-warrant-phone-scam-suspect-arrested-in-st-lucie-county-faces-fraud-and-rico-charges-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/276184\/","title":{"rendered":"Fake warrant phone scam suspect arrested in St. Lucie County, faces fraud and RICO charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A man accused of helping run a multi-state scam that tricked victims with fake arrest warrants is now in custody in St. Lucie County<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office<\/a> announced on Monday that Robert Reyes, 39, of Norcross, Georgia<\/a>, was arrested after a multi-jurisdictional investigation led by the SLCSO Criminal Investigations Division. <\/p>\n

Detectives say Reyes served as a key financial conduit for an organized criminal network responsible for carrying out the scheme.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A multi-state investigation led to the arrest of Robert Reyes in a fake warrant scheme. (SLC Jail) <\/p>\n

Reyes was extradited to St. Lucie County and is facing charges of organized fraud under $20,000, third-degree grand theft, and violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, according to the sheriff’s office. <\/p>\n

Investigators say the group relied on a carefully scripted phone scam designed to create panic. SLCSO said victims were contacted by people posing as high-ranking members of the St. Lucie County Sheriff\u2019s Office and told that they, or a loved one, missed a mandatory court appearance and now had an active warrant for their arrest.<\/p>\n

From there, the scammers allegedly pressured victims to make immediate payments to avoid being taken into custody, SLCSO said.<\/p>\n

See also: The Cost of Compliance: Red tape, engineer studies, and the rising price of home projects<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThese scammers hide behind phones and fake identities while stealing from innocent people,\u201d Sheriff Richard Del Toro said. <\/p>\n

Let this arrest send a clear message: St. Lucie County is the wrong county to target, and we will relentlessly pursue anyone who victimizes our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sheriff\u2019s office is reminding residents that law enforcement agencies will never demand payment over the phone to resolve warrants or avoid arrest.<\/p>\n

The investigation remains ongoing, and detectives say additional arrests are possible. Reyes is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A man accused of helping run a multi-state scam that tricked victims with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-276184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276184","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=276184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}