Colombian immigrants stole nearly $1.7 million in property across Florida, Polk County Sheriff says

After a 17-month long investigation, Polk County's Sheriff Office revealed details of a criminal group that targeted local businesses and homeowners across six Florida counties.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd provided details about the investigation of a "South American Theft Group (SATG)" that burglarized at least nine homes across six Florida counties (Polk, Pasco, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee and Collier), stealing nearly $1.7 million in property. According to Judd, the suspects primarily took jewelry, watches, designer purses and cash.

"What makes these folks so really, really dangerous: they are professional burglars. This is organized criminal conduct at retail facilities," Judd said.

During the news conference, Judd said that all four suspects had come to the United States illegally from Colombia and were living in Winter Garden, Florida. He also revealed that their modus operandi consisted of going to Asian-American restaurants, photographing the interiors and determining who the owners were ahead of committing the burglaries.

"They set up surveillance and counter-surveillance," Judd added. "They followed these people to their homes. Then, they photographed their homes. And they looked at their alarm systems and the cameras in the neighborhood," he added.

The four suspects, Geraldine Galeano-Perez, Geiler Orobio-Cabezas, Milton Ayala-Sierra and Jason Alexander Higuera-Ruiz were apprehended after a deputy assigned to Eagle Lake pulled them over for a traffic stop. All of them had a lengthy criminal record when apprehended back in April.

According to Polk County law enforcement, they found very little of stolen property, as the suspects had moved much of the stolen goods out of the area. The suspects also used different names.

Galeano-Perez and Orobio-Cabezas both are booked into the Polk and Pinellas County Jails, respectively. Ayala-Sierra was deported to Colombia while Huigera-Ruiz remains at-large after he made bond and was released. He allegedly cut off the GPS police put on him.

"All four of our suspects have taken advantage of our functionally non-existent border control and entered into the United States illegally to conduct their illegal activities," Judd said. "I am proud of the work by our detectives, the various sheriff's offices, FDLE, and the Attorney General's Office of Statewide Prosecution."

Judd is not the only Florida sheriff to criticize the federal government's handling of the border crisis. In 2022, Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood said that the uptick in drug-related deaths across the country and across Florida could be traced back to a "porous' border, drug-smuggling cartels and an abundance of fentanyl."

"I don't understand why this is a partisan issue," Chitwood told News 6 at the time. "People are dying. More people die in the United States of drug overdoses than they do of murder or car accidents. But what are we doing?"