by Eric Lendrum
Local law enforcement in a Florida county announced the arrest of over 100 people who committed looting and similar crimes in the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, with at least 41 of these suspects being illegal aliens.
As reported by Fox News, police officers on patrol for looters in Pinellas County have made the arrests over the course of the last three weeks. A total of 45 suspects were arrested on 68 different charges, ranging from robbery and burglary to grand theft, vandalism, and trespassing.
“They’re going into people’s homes, they’re taking stuff, they’re rummaging through their things,” said Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri at a press conference announcing the arrests.
Another 58 were arrested for their involvement in a scam operation that preyed upon unlicensed contractors. The scammers would send fake bills to victims, demanding that they pay for repairs that they didn’t actually do; their fake bills collectively totaled $250 million.
“This is the epitome of people trying to exploit others when they’re down and when they’re out, and they’re trying to rebuild and they’ve got nothing,” Gualtieri continued.
Of the 45 looters who were arrested, 41 were illegals, mostly from Latin America.
In addition, the sheriff’s office has made contact with at least 196 suspects who were roaming in beachside neighborhoods where they did not belong, but could not arrest them due to a lack of probable cause. Of those suspects, at least 63 were illegal aliens.
“So, we made contact with them and told them to get out,” said Gualtieri. “We’ve never seen anything of this magnitude before. We’ve never seen this influx of people from out of the area that are clearly just here to steal and to pilfer and to do bad things and to target these vulnerable people.”
“As the Pinellas beaches recover, we are going to continue these patrols and arrest everyone we can who is stealing from the vulnerable victims of two back-to-back storms that have devastated our community,” Gualtieri added.
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Eric Lendrum reports for American Greatness.
Photo “Hurricane Helene Damage” by FEMA Federal Emergency Management Agency.
