Six suspects have been arrested after Miami-Dade police busted an illegal dairy trade ring responsible for stealing more than $1 million worth of items.
According to Miami-Dade police officials, the six suspects were all employees of Island Dairy, a milk distributor who worked with McArthur Dairy, a dairy company.
The arrests came as part of the investigation dubbed ‘Operation Milk’, which found that since 2021 these individuals had ‘systematically stolen’ more than $925,000 worth of milk from McArthur Dairy, as well as around $350,000 in boxes, according to an arrest report.
Police said the suspects – who include delivery drivers and an Island Dairy dispatcher – were tampering with the ordering system, causing extra dairy products to be loaded onto delivery trucks.
Once out for delivery, the drivers would deviate from their pre-assigned routes, meet someone else and transfer the extra dairy products to a delivery truck, police say.
Island Dairy conducted an internal investigation which uncovered wrongdoing and identified possible suspects, so they contacted police, who began monitoring the subjects, and some time later police captured the transfer of product on video. dairy stolen between trucks.
One of the suspects said each carton of stolen milk sold for $10, according to the arrest report.
The suspects have been identified as Yohanny Padrón, 38; Joseph Fallaera, 56; Edouard Alvarez, 55 years old; Osleivy Rodríguez, 36; Ihosvany Lopez, 50; and Maikel Rodríguez, 46;
They now face multiple charges of grand theft and an organized scheme to defraud.