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The Orlando Police dismantled a network of organized fraud made up of Cubans, which used cloned food benefit cards to drain the accounts of about 30 victims in the metropolitan area, and this week arrested three of its members, according to arrest reports.
Five individuals have been identified as members of the criminal group: Carlos Rubén Gómez Jiménez, Maite Lázara Mesa Labrada, Carlos Luis Díaz Jiménez, Enrique González, and Luis González Domínguez. The police announced the detention of the first three, who were incarcerated in the Orange County jail on May 14.
So far, the authorities have not revealed the nationality of any of the suspects.
The defendants face charges for serious offenses, which include organized crime activities or racketeering and conspiracy to participate in organized crime activities under RICO (short for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations); illegal use of personal identification information; illegal possession of another person's identification information; forgery of public assistance documents; organized scheme to defraud and trafficking in stolen property, according to police records consulted by CiberCuba.
The detectives investigated 37 incidents within the limits of the city of Orlando between October 2025 and April 2026, a period during which the group stole approximately $5,180 in funds from the federal nutrition assistance program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps. A total of 46 fraudulent actions were recorded.
The modus operandi was methodical: the suspects used skimming devices to copy the data from real EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) cards and create fake cards with that information.
Before making larger purchases, they would carry out small transactions—typically buying bottles of water at Wawa stores—to verify that the stolen data worked and to check the available balance in each account.
Once the balance was confirmed, they purchased large quantities of energy drinks and coffee at Walmart and other stores, completely draining the victims' accounts. The actions of the accused were captured by the surveillance cameras of the businesses, as stated in the official documents.
The merchandise was stored in storage units and then transported to food and beverage warehouses, where it was resold for profit.
Díaz Jiménez, 50 years old, was identified by the detectives as the "leader of the operation," responsible for handling payments, providing the profiles of the cloned EBT cards to the delivery workers, managing access to storage units, and coordinating the distribution network. The report of his arrest indicates that he faces 17 charges for involvement in at least five fraudulent operations.
In 2018, Díaz Jiménez was investigated by the Seminole County Sheriff's Office and the Sanford Police Department for possession of cloning devices, stolen credit cards, and engaging in fraudulent transactions.
Gómez Jiménez, 39 years old, is identified as the "main field operator" of the network; he is the primary person captured by cameras conducting the "test" balance transactions at Wawa and making bulk purchases of energy drinks and coffee at the self-checkout counters of Walmart.
He is attributed with 36 fraudulent EBT transactions during the investigated period. According to records from the Orange County Department of Corrections reviewed by CiberCuba, the defendant faces 100 charges.
Mesa Labrada, 26 years old, served as a "field operative"; she acted as a lookout and driver during mass purchases in stores and directly assisted in the payment process using cloned EBT card data. She participated in 17 transactions and faces a total of 52 charges.
Until the morning of this Sunday, the three remained in custody at the Orange County Jail.
The whereabouts of Luis González Domínguez, 49, and Enrique González, 54, have not been publicly confirmed by the authorities. The former was responsible for transporting large loads of stolen goods between storage and distribution points, while González acted as a receiver and coordinated the distribution of the stolen merchandise, transporting it from where it was stored to local businesses and distribution warehouses in exchange for cash, according to the police.
The victims discovered the theft, in most cases, when they tried to buy food and their cards showed no funds.
Gwendolyn Courtney Hunter, one of the affected individuals, shared with the channel WESH 2 News her experience upon discovering in October 2025 that her account had been emptied: "I was devastated because I had been waiting all month to buy the few items I needed. Why would you do that to someone? You don't even know the person, or you just don't care at all."
This type of fraud has become recurring in the state of Florida. Last April, a woman was arrested in Pembroke Pines accused of stealing over $120,000 in SNAP benefits from about 200 people over the course of eight months.
Nationally, fraud involving the cloning of EBT cards has increased alarmingly: according to estimates from the organization Propel, approximately $607,000,000 was stolen from public assistance beneficiaries across the country during 2025; 57% of the thefts occurred on the same day as the monthly benefit deposit.
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