Looting has been a prevalent issue across Florida’s damaged west coast communities in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. In a press conference held on October 24, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri reported that the majority of the looting suspects arrested on Pinellas County’s barrier islands have been illegal immigrants.
Sheriff Gualtieri stated that between October 2 and October 23, deputies arrested 45 suspects on 68 charges throughout the barrier islands. Of these 45 suspects, he claimed that only two of them are actually from Pinellas County and at least 41 (about 91%) are illegal immigrants primarily from South and Central America.
In a summary of the press conference posted to the Pinellas County Sheriff Office’s (PCSO) website, the PSCO says that the 68 charges included loitering and prowling, vandalism and trespassing, burglary, grand theft, and armed robbery.
The PSCO also claimed that deputies came into contact with an additional 196 people in neighborhoods on the islands. According to Sheriff Gualtieri, these people were in places “where they did not belong, at times they should not be there, doing things they should not be doing”.
However, probable cause was not able to be established, so these individuals were just told that they had to “move along”. Of these additional 196 people, 141 (about 72%) were not from Pinellas County, and 163 (about 83%) were not citizens of the United States.
Then, the PCSO said that starting on Tuesday, October 22, the Economic Crimes Unit enacted a three-day operation referred to as “Flood of Fraud” on Madeira Beach, which resulted in a total of 64 more arrests on 102 charges by Thursday, October 24.
In light of these crimes, Sheriff Gualtieri expressed his determination 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” with a focus “on protecting our residents and our businesses who are desperate to rebuild and get on with their lives”.