VOLUSIA COUNTY, Florida — A South Florida man has been arrested for his role in a scam operation that targeted vendors by posing as Volusia County officials, according to the Volusia Sheriff’s Office. The scheme involved fraudulent purchases and opened lines of credit over an 11-month period.The scam artists contacted hundreds of vendors, leading to some suspicious orders being rejected, but others were successful. In August and September, over $7,000 in reusable respirators were fraudulently ordered and shipped to Miami. The investigation expanded in October when a company selling Starlink kits became suspicious of a high-end order purportedly from Volusia County’s purchasing director. This led to the discovery of a previous fraudulent order of 15 Starlink kits worth about $48,000, delivered to a storage unit in Davie, Florida.Detectives, working with South Florida police, tracked the activation of one of the stolen Starlink kits to an apartment in Miramar, identifying 26-year-old Keith Merard, of Miramar, Florida, as the suspect. Surveillance footage showed Merard moving Starlink boxes from the storage unit into a black Ford SUV. A search warrant executed at Merard’s apartment led to his arrest, where he confessed to his involvement in the scams.Merard was found to be responsible for receiving fraudulently obtained orders, shipping them, and converting cash to Bitcoin for transfer to overseas partners. He faces charges of organized scheme to defraud and criminal use of personal identification information and is currently held at the Broward County Jail, according to the Volusia Sheriff’s Office.