The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office dismantled an organized network on Thursday that was stealing shipments from Bath & Body Works and reselling candles and soaps at reduced prices, resulting in losses exceeding $100,000 for the chain, according to a report by Local10 (WPLG).
The authorities arrested four individuals, allegedly of Cuban origin: Lecsi Linet Figueroa-Martínez, 24 years old, resident of Hialeah; Yosdany Martínez-Bravo, 49 years old, from northwest Miami-Dade; Marlie Rodríguez-Benavides, 35 years old, from Pembroke Pines; and Michel Sánchez-Escanelle, 44 years old, also from Hialeah.
The investigation started following an internal audit of Bath & Body Works that "revealed a significant loss of inventory" at its store in the London Square mall, in southwest Miami-Dade.
Sánchez-Escanelle was the delivery truck driver responsible for transporting goods from a warehouse in Medley to that store. Instead of completing the deliveries, he diverted boxes to other vehicles.
Surveillance videos captured at least two meetings in September behind a nearby CAO Bakery & Cafe, where Sánchez-Escanelle was transferring the products to the trunk of his BMW truck to deliver them to Figueroa-Martínez.
On Thursday morning, detectives observed him repeating the maneuver directly behind the store and followed Figueroa-Martínez to his home in Hialeah and then to Martínez-Bravo's house, where both unloaded the merchandise alongside another man not identified in the court records.
When executing a search warrant at that residence, authorities recovered 17 boxes of stolen goods and approximately 140,000 dollars in cash.
Rodríguez-Benavides arrived at the location while the detectives were still there and was arrested on the spot.
According to the police report, he admitted to having purchased the stolen candles for eight dollars each to resell them for ten, while their official price at Bath & Body Works is 25 dollars.
He also acknowledged having purchased 30,000 dollars in stolen merchandise from Figueroa-Martínez over the previous six months, and that he "suspected that the boxes from Bath & Body Works were stolen but continued buying them anyway."
Regarding Martínez-Bravo's role, it was stated that he "received and stored the stolen goods for her."
Sánchez-Escanelle was arrested that same afternoon at his home in Hialeah.
Regarding the charges, Martínez-Bravo and Rodríguez-Benavides each face a charge of selling stolen property, with bail set at $7,500.
Figueroa-Martínez and Sánchez-Escanelle face 12 charges of cargo theft and another 12 for trafficking in stolen property. In addition, Sánchez-Escanelle has an additional 12 charges of organized fraud.
The four detainees were held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center until Friday afternoon. Figueroa-Martínez's bail was set at $60,000, with the condition that it be proven the funds come from a legitimate source. Sánchez-Escanelle's bail was still to be determined.
The case falls within a growing pattern of organized retail crime in Florida. In May of this year, employees at a UPS store in Miami Lakes stole around 80 boxes from Bath & Body Works and Victoria's Secret —valued at about $40,000— and put them up for sale on Facebook Marketplace.
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