HIALEAH, Fla. \u2014 A 20-year-old man was arrested Monday after he used fraudulent credit cards to spend thousands of dollars on fireworks at a Hialeah business ahead of the Fourth of July, authorities said.<\/p>\n
According to an arrest report from the Hialeah Police Department, the fraudulent purchases were reported to authorities Monday by the owner of Samurai Fireworks, located at 2122 W. 62nd St.<\/p>\n
Police said the owner told police that on June 2, the suspect, identified as Santiago Alejandro Prieto-Mendoza, of Miami, picked up multiple orders of fireworks that were later revealed to have been purchased with fraudulent credit cards.<\/p>\n
The owner said the business was notified about the fraud by their payment processor after Prieto-Mendoza had already picked up the fireworks, worth a total of $2,277.60.<\/p>\n
According to the report, Prieto-Mendoza returned to the business Monday after placing three new orders, which the payment processor also flagged as fraudulent.<\/p>\n
Police said a store employee recognized Prieto-Mendoza as the person who picked up the previous packages on June 2 and immediately notified his supervisors that Prieto-Mendoza was trying to retrieve additional merchandise from the store.<\/p>\n
Police were then called and Prieto-Mendoza was taken into custody on a charge of organized scheme to defraud.<\/p>\n
According to the report, he made some kind of admission to detectives after his arrest, however his exact statement was redacted from the publicly released report.<\/p>\n
As of Tuesday morning, Prieto-Mendoza was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $2,500 bond. <\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n
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