{"id":292619,"date":"2026-06-02T03:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T03:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/292619\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T03:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T03:00:07","slug":"martin-county-holds-news-conference-on-operation-hammertime-tied-to-retail-theft-ring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/292619\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin County holds news conference on Operation Hammertime tied to retail theft ring"},"content":{"rendered":"

MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 The Martin County Sheriff’s Office <\/a>is holding a news conference on the arrest of three people accused of participating in an organized retail theft scheme that targeted multiple hardware stores across Florida.<\/p>\n

The investigation, dubbed “Operation Hammertime,” led to the arrests of Johnny Batista, 19, Roberto Hernandez-Castro, 39, and Roberto Aldana Ferrera, 31.<\/p>\n

Last week, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said, “This group of criminals carefully orchestrated thefts across at least 13 counties to turn over illicit proceeds as quickly as possible.”<\/p>\n

See also: 3 South Florida men sentenced in Medicare fraud and money laundering scheme<\/a><\/p>\n

Uthmeier said the crew allegedly committed smash-and-grab burglaries <\/a>at local hardware stores, including Ferguson Waterworks, Grainger, Electric City, Sewell’s Hardware and other small businesses. Uthmeier said the suspects would select high-end tools, throw them in large bins and leave the stores without paying.<\/p>\n

The thefts were allegedly committed across Martin, Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, Orange, Polk, Brevard, Seminole, St. Lucie, Indian River, Duval, Sarasota and Pinellas counties. Authorities said the stolen goods were then taken to Miami-Dade County, where they were sold.<\/p>\n

The suspects were charged with:<\/p>\n

RacketeeringConspiracy to commit racketeeringBurglary of a structure causing more than $1,000 in damage (five counts)Attempted burglary of a structure causing more than $1,000 in damage (two counts)Grand theft causing damage of more than $1,000 (three counts)Possession of burglary tools (15 counts)Attempted burglary of an unoccupied structure (three counts)Burglary of an occupied structureBurglary of an unoccupied structure (five counts)Grand theft between $5,000 and $10,000 (two counts)Grand theft between $750 and $5,000 (four counts)<\/p>\n

As of this writing, Batista is being held in the Palm Beach County Jail. Ferrera is facing charges in Georgia and will be extradited to Florida. Hernandez-Castro remains at large and is wanted on an active arrest warrant.<\/p>\n

The Martin County Sheriff’s Office led the investigation with assistance from the Office of Statewide Prosecution.<\/p>\n

The sheriff’s office news conference will begin at 2 p.m. on Tuesday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 The Martin County Sheriff’s Office is holding a news conference on the arrest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-292619","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\/292619","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=292619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}