Alarming number of illegal aliens suspected of looting after Florida hurricanes



Nearly all of the suspects arrested in Florida for looting in the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton were illegal immigrants, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office announced over the weekend.

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri stated, "Between October 2nd and October 23rd, just in the last 21 days, we've arrested 45 people in the Pinellas beach communities on 68 different charges, including armed robbery, burglary, loitering and prowling, grand theft, vandalism, and trespass."

'Tough times for everybody.'

"Of the 45 burglars and thieves that we've arrested, only two were from Pinellas County," Gualtieri continued. "The rest came here from out of the area to steal from our residents and businesses."

Gualtieri noted that 41 of the 45 arrested individuals were illegal aliens from Mexico, Cuba, Columbia, Honduras, Venezuela, and other countries.

The sheriff's office had contact with another 196 individuals who were caught in the beach neighborhoods under suspicious circumstances and questioned by law enforcement but ultimately released due to lack of probable cause. Of those individuals, 163 were illegal aliens, the department stated.

"They're going into people's homes, they're taking stuff, they're rummaging through their things," Gualtieri explained. "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."

Bill Karns, the owner of Saltwater Hippie Beach Bar, told WTSP that he witnessed people trying to loot local businesses, including his own. He noted that the suspects were caught.

"Tough times for everybody, but we can't have people coming in and taking advantage of our residents," Karns stated.

Another 58 people were charged with scamming Florida hurricane victims out of $250 million for repairs that they never performed. The suspects offered to complete over 75 projects, including plumbing, roofing, and electrical work.

"People offering to do work on their property, but, in some cases, have no intention of doing the work. In other cases, are unqualified to do the work and, in all of these cases, are unlicensed to do the work," Gualtieri said.

Nearly all of the arrested individuals had extensive criminal records, Gualtieri stated.

An additional 80 officers were deployed to the hurricane-impacted areas.

"A lot of these people were in the area to take others' properties, and our efforts prevented additional crimes from occurring," Gualtieri said. "As the Pinellas beaches recover, we're gonna continue these patrols and arrest everyone we can who is stealing from the vulnerable of two back-to-back storms that have devastated our community."

Many of the businesses in Madeira Beach remain closed, and some are still boarded up following the hurricanes, WTVT reported.

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Wild bodycam video shows Florida deputy jumping onto unmanned runaway boat to stop it after driver fell off



A wild police bodycam video shows the moment a Florida deputy jumped onto a speeding boat.

A Florida man fell off his boat during a journey in the Tampa area on July 30. The man was reportedly rescued by a good Samaritan. However, the man's boat continued to race off the coast despite not having a driver.

The U.S. Coast Guard was dispatched, but was unsuccessful in reining in the runaway vessel.

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said in a statement on Instagram, "The Coast Guard attempted to stop the boat by deploying propeller fouling devices, but it was to no avail."

Two deputies with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office – both of the Marine and Environmental Lands Unit – were in a vessel that raced alongside the unmanned boat traveling 41 MPH. Bodycam video shows Deputy Fernandes jumping from one speeding boat to another. He doesn't falter, and then immediately brings the boat back under control.

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office shared bodycam footage of the daring rescue of the runaway boat on Facebook and Instagram. The movie-like video had an appropriate soundtrack of "Jump" by the rock band Van Halen.

The sheriff's office joked, "And yes Deputy Fernandes does his own stunts."

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office captioned the video with some boating advice: "If you don't want this to happen to you... always connect your kill switch lanyard."

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Moment Deputy Stops Runaway Boat Caught on Camera www.youtube.com

Sheriff: Florida deputy killed by construction worker in hit-and-run is illegal immigrant who was expelled from US in 2021; police uncover 'serious' immigration concern during investigation



A Florida sheriff's deputy was killed in a deadly hit-and-run by an illegal immigrant who had previously been expelled from the United States – only to illegally cross the southern border again, according to law enforcement officials. During the investigation, police uncovered a "serious" immigration concern.

Pinellas County Sherrif's Deputy Michael Hartwick – a 51-year-old father – was working the traffic detail for a construction zone along highway I-275 in St. Petersburg on Thursday night. Around 10:40 p.m., a front-end loader that is used to lift concrete barriers reportedly hit Hartwick. The impact of the heavy-duty construction vehicle instantly killed the 19-year veteran of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, according to authorities.

Pinellas County Sheriff's Office

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said during a Friday press conference that the vehicle was traveling about 20 mph, and added that the driver "was going, I think too fast, for this thing."

After killing Hartwick, the driver reportedly fled the crime scene and drove a quarter mile before stopping. He then continued to flee by foot.

The New York Post reported, "During his time on the run, cops said he contacted his roommate — who is also an illegal migrant — asking him to pick him up in his car, police said. But the roommate turned around when he saw the huge law enforcement response in the area."

Gualtieri said the driver told a fellow co-worker that he had "just killed a deputy."

The driver allegedly handed his construction vest and helmet to a 31-year-old coworker named Elieser Aureilio Gomez-Zelaya, and told him to hide them. The driver ran into the nearby woods.

Law enforcement launched a manhunt involving three helicopters, K-9 units, and about 100 officers. Police located the vest and helmet – which helped bloodhounds from the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office to track down the driver.

After being taken into custody, the driver gave investigators a fake name of Victor Vasquez-Real and said he was a 35-year-old originally from Puerto Rico. However, investigators later revealed the man to be Juan Ariel Molina-Salles – a 32-year-old illegal immigrant living in the United States, according to authorities.

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said Molina-Salles entered the country illegally in Oct 2021 in Eagle Pass, Texas – a popular location for migrants to cross into the U.S. from Mexico. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) allegedly denied Molina-Salles entry into the United States, and he was sent back to Mexico.

Molina-Salles reportedly told police that he had been living in the Tampa Bay area since March of this year.

There are no official records of him entering the country.

"There is no record of him ever legally coming back into the United States, and he was here illegally," Gualtieri said.

Molina-Salles was arrested and charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving death.

Gualtieri said Molina-Salles fled "because he became afraid after he killed the deputy, but he clearly knew he killed the deputy."

Gomez-Zelaya also gave authorities a fake name, according to police. He is purportedly an illegal immigrant from Honduras. Gomez-Zelaya was charged with being an accessory to the crime for hiding the driver's helmet and vest in the woods.

Both men were taken to the Pinellas County Jail.

Second man arrested in connection to death of Pinellas County deputy www.youtube.com

Gualtieri said a majority of the construction workers at the site gave authorities false names and lied about their immigration status.

"They were hindering the investigation, not giving us answers to the questions we needed," he noted.

The construction workers were employed by a company doing contract work for Florida's Department of Transportation.

"All of these people are working for Archer Western, which is a contractor apparently doing work for the Florida Department of Transportation out of Tampa," Gualtieri proclaimed, according to WFLA. "This company’s employing all these illegals, and they’re all out there lying, giving us fake names, fake IDs, a lot of fake IDs out of North Carolina."

Molina-Salles reportedly provided the construction company with a fake ID card.

Gualtieri said of Molina-Salles, "He didn’t have a driver’s license. He’s got nothing. He shouldn’t have been here to begin with, and he shouldn’t have been driving. He shouldn’t have been working."

"He has no qualifications to drive a front loader, and he said what he told these people is that back in Honduras, he worked some construction, and he knows how to operate this thing so they said go ahead," the sheriff continued. "Is that really what these contractors are doing? Is that how they’re doing business?"

The state Transportation Department told Fox News, "While it appears that these hiring procedures were followed, including a federal E-Verify clearance check, and the individuals in question passed this federal clearance, the Department is initiating an internal review on this project contract. FDOT will also continue to support law enforcement efforts as investigations continue."

Archer Western – a Georgia-based construction company – said it is cooperating with the investigations.

Gualtieri said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would be notified about the illegal immigrants working at the construction company because the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office has no jurisdiction over illegal aliens.

"Again, he knew he hit a deputy and as opposed to stopping, rendering aid, and accepting responsibility for what he did, we had to chase him around and sift through all this nonsense with all these people lying and providing fake IDs and we spent nine hours out there chasing this thing down," Gualtieri said,

On Friday, the office of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told WTVT:

We are currently investigating the matter and looking to determine if illegal immigrants have utilized fraudulent information to obtain employment with contractors working with the State of Florida. As we collect details and examine potential courses of action, we are reminded once again that illegal immigration is a serious and ongoing problem in the United States that has a multifaceted effect on Florida. If this individual’s illegal status played into his decision to try to cover up this incident, it underscores just one of the harms that our state faces because of the federal government’s open border policies. The State of Florida is not a sanctuary state and illegal immigrants are not authorized to work here. For reasons such as this, we will continue our lawful efforts to interdict and relocate illegal immigrants.

Hatwick is survived by his two adult sons.

You can watch Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri's press conference on the death of Deputy Michael Hartwick below.

Sheriff Bob Gualtieri Holds Press Conference to Discuss Updates on the Death of Deputy Hartwick www.youtube.com

Florida elections supervisor says armed men purporting to represent Trump campaign showed up at polling place. Trump campaign says no way.



The Trump campaign says that armed men outside a St. Petersburg, Florida, polling place were not sent or hired by the campaign.

Pinellas County's supervisor of elections said that the armed men who set up a tent outside an early voting site this week reportedly insisted they were there on behalf of the president's 2020 re-election campaign.

What are the details?

According to WFLA-TV, Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Julie Marcus said that two armed men set up a tent outside an early voting site on Wednesday and claimed to be with the Trump campaign.

"The sheriff [Bob Gualtieri] told me the persons that were dressed in these security uniforms had indicated to sheriff's deputies that they belonged to a licensed security company and they indicated — and this has not been confirmed yet — that they were hired by the Trump campaign," Marcus told the station on Wednesday evening.

Marcus added, "The sheriff and I take this very seriously. Voter intimidation, deterring voters from voting, impeding a voter's ability to cast a ballot in this election is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in any way, shape, or form. So we anticipated many things going into this election. Not only cybersecurity, but physical security and we had a plan in place and executed that plan."

Gualtieri told the station that he and his officers will do their best to prevent any interference at polling places.

"I just don't want to get too deep into the specifics because we're trying to balance it," he said. "But I'll say it's a combination of uniformed personnel who will be in the area, and also, we're gonna use some undercover personnel just to monitor the situation."

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign told the station, "The campaign did not hire these individuals, nor did the campaign direct them to go to the voting location."