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The Orlando Police dismantled an organized fraud ring made up of Cubans, which used cloned food benefit cards to empty the accounts of around 30 victims in the metropolitan area, and arrested three of its members this week, 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 arrest of the first three, who were confined to the Orange County jail on May 14.
So far, the authorities have not disclosed the nationality of any of the suspects.
The accused face charges for serious offenses, which include organized crime activities or racketeering and conspiracy to engage in organized crime 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 reviewed by CiberCuba.
The detectives investigated 37 incidents within the city limits of Orlando between October 2025 and April 2026, 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 produced fake cards with that information.
Before making larger purchases, they would carry out small transactions—generally 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 in the shopping centers, as stated in the official documents.
The merchandise was stored in storage units and then moved to a food and beverage warehouse where it was resold for profit.
Gómez Jiménez, 39 years old, was identified by detectives as the "primary offender" of the group, attributed with 36 fraudulent EBT transactions during the investigated period. According to records from the Orange County Department of Corrections, the accused faces 100 charges.
Arrest reports indicate that Mesa Labrada, 26 years old, participated in 17 transactions and is facing a total of 52 charges; while Díaz Jiménez, 50 years old, is facing 17 charges for participating in at least five fraudulent operations. The latter was investigated by the Seminole County Sheriff's Office and the Sanford Police Department in 2018 for possession of cloning devices, stolen credit cards, and conducting fraudulent transactions.
Until the morning of this Sunday, the three remained detained in the Orange County jail. The whereabouts of Enrique González and Luis González Domínguez have not been publicly confirmed by the authorities.
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, recounted to the channel WESH 2 News her experience upon discovering in October 2025 that her account had been emptied: "I was devastated because I had waited 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 simply don't care at all."
This type of fraud has become common 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 span of eight months.
Nationwide, EBT card cloning fraud has grown alarmingly: according to estimates by the organization Propel, approximately $607,000,000 was stolen from public assistance beneficiaries across the country in 2025; 57% of the thefts occurred on the same day as the monthly benefits deposit.
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