NYC – The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said this weekend that 41 of the 45 alleged looters rounded up on armed robbery, burglary, loitering, grant theft, vandalism and trespassing charges on their turf in the wake of the two deadly storms are in the US illegally, Fox News said in a report.
The sheriff’s office also said that another 196 people were caught in the area under suspicious circumstances and questioned by deputies but had to be released due to lack of probable cause — with 163 of those individuals found to be in the US illegally.
“A lot of these people were in the area to take others’ properties and our efforts prevented additional crimes from occurring,” Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said at a press briefing.
“As the Pinellas beaches recover, were 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.”
The two massive storms slammed the Florida coast earlier this month in back-to-back disasters, causing millions of dollars in damage and killing more than a dozen people in Pinellas County alone.
Gualtieri said 80 additional deputies were deployed to areas in the county where residents were ordered to evacuate in order to keep the community safe.
In addition tot he looters, another 58 people were charged with scamming hurricane victims out of some $250 million for repairs they never did — and in most cases ever intended to do.
“Our effort to protect the community has not stopped with these hurricanes’ direct impact,” the sheriff said in a statement. “We are now focused on protecting our residents and our businesses who are desperate to rebuild and get on with their lives.”
It is unclear if any of those were migrants.
