MIAMI-DADE, Fla. — Authorities arrested 10 men and charged them with taking part in a sophisticated GPS device theft ring spanning 17 Florida counties.
Police are calling it "Operation Garmin." Named after Garmin GPS devices, which were taken from large boats at marinas and private homes.
According to reporting by the Miami Herald, the thieves were arrested in Miami-Dade County and will answer to the charges against them in Monroe County. Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay estimated they took at least $2.5 million worth of GPS devices.
According to reporting by Local 10 South Florida, Garmin GPS devices can be sold at a retail price of up to $5,000, specifically the 8612 H16 Model. According to Ramsay, most of the boats the thieves targeted had 2 Garmin devices on board, though authorities do not yet know how many devices they stole altogether.
What they do know is that the theft ring was, in their words, "well organized and sophisticated". Sheriff Ramsay described the ring as a "top-down" operation: ringleaders at the top instructing “worker bees” at the bottom who did most of the actual stealing.
According to the Herald, detectives were able to get text messages from members of the ring that detailed which parts of Florida had more of a police presence at any given time. They coordinated the thefts carefully, telling each other which counties to avoid and which were safe. Reporting from Local 10 South Florida shows the thieves breaking into marinas at night and being caught on surveillance video committing the thefts after dark.
The leadership would assemble teams to steal the devices and would reward them with a percentage of the profits. "There was almost a pyramid scheme, where if they brought more people in, they would get more of a percentage," Sheriff Ramsay said.
The alleged ringleaders of the operation, according to Ramsay, were 19-year-old Juan Felipe Villegas and 22-year-old Lazaro Arturo Gonzalez Munos, both of whom have their bonds set at over $1 million. The other eight arrested members of the ring have bonds ranging from $50,000 to $695,000. Some of the suspects could get up to 20 years in prison. Officials say there is still one member of the ring still at large.
