The Public Corruption Section of the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office dismantled a network dedicated to selling parking permits for individuals with disabilities, obtained through forged documents.
In total, 11 people, of which an unspecified number would be of Cuban origin, were arrested as part of the so-called "Operation Parking Denied" (Operation Parking Denied).
The arrests took place gradually between April and August of this year, and were publicly announced by the Sheriff's Office through its social media profiles, where the official poster with the photographs and arrest dates of each individual involved was also disseminated.
How did the scheme work?
According to the authorities, the fraud operated through intermediaries who provided applicants with disability certification forms with forged signatures of doctors, which were then submitted to the relevant offices to obtain parking permits.
Each permit was sold for 200 dollars.
The detectives found that numerous forms listed names of doctors who had never treated the applicants.
Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz confirmed that at least in one case the signature of a doctor who retired in 2020 and passed away in 2025 was used.
One of the most notable cases involves Lianne Quintero, who was arrested on August 13: according to the police report, she submitted a fraudulent application in May 2025, using the signature of a doctor who had passed away just days earlier, on the 5th of that same month.
Quintero admitted to having no disabilities and voluntarily surrendered the permit to the authorities.
These are the 11 detainees
The official poster of the operation identifies the following arrested individuals:
- Ryan Carbonell (August 17).
- Roberto Lopez (August 14).
- Jorge Yanes (August 14).
- Irene Oria (August 14).
- Juan Aristizabal (August 13).
- Lianne Quintero (August 13).
- Etian Vila (August 12).
- Camilo Padilla (July 29).
- Kristina Drobachevskaia (July 21).
- Alexander Campo (July 21).
- Rafael Brito Diaz (April 6).
The origin: a massive audit
The police operation is a direct consequence of an audit launched in December 2025 by the Miami-Dade tax collector, Dariel Fernández, with a zero-tolerance policy against the abuse of these permits.
That review covered all applications for permanent and temporary permits issued in the last 24 months.
In June of this year, it examined almost 42,000 applications and canceled 5,656 permits, representing 14% of the total audited.
Cases with indications of fraud were referred to the Sheriff's Office for criminal action, which directly led to Operation Denied Parking.
At the time of the announcement of the arrests, 6,190 out of 7,349 applications corresponding to the final phase of the audit had failed that review.
This type of fraud is not new in the county: in September 2022, the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office had already prosecuted a 26-year-old woman for selling applications with forged medical signatures at the same price of 200 dollars that was found in the current operation.
The penalties faced by those involved
Under Florida law, providing false information to obtain a disability permit constitutes a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail, a fine of $1,000, or both penalties.
A prior conviction for fraud may also result in a four-year ban on applying for a new permit.
Fernández warned from the beginning of the audit that fraudulent permits directly harm those who need them the most:
"When a parking permit for people with disabilities is issued or kept active based on incorrect information, it is the residents who truly need access that pay the price."
Sheriff Cordero-Stutz was emphatic in assessing the results of the operation:
"We are pursuing this case as far as the evidence takes us. It is not just a piece of plastic hanging from the rearview mirror. These identifiers exist because the most vulnerable individuals in our community need them in their daily lives."
The investigation is ongoing and authorities anticipate more arrests in the coming weeks.
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