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In October 2020, Det. Sealy initiated ‘OPERATION VIGILANT GUARDIAN’ after he received a referral investigation from NMBPD department’s Economic Crimes Unit about an elderly male who received a phone call that his grandson had been arrested and needed money for bail and other legal fees. The victim was coerced into sending over $9,000 to a bank account with an Aventura address.
Det. Sealy, being aware of the increase in these scams and the vulnerability of seniors who are commonly targeted, began to issue subpoenas and track where the money had gone, and established the owner of the account resided in Aventura. While reviewing the financial statements, Det. Sealy noticed that there were several high dollar Zelle and Cashapp transfers to the same person. Through his training and extensive experience in fraud investigations, he knew that subjects engaged in these schemes often use “money mules” to establish accounts to receive the victims’ funds.
Det. Sealy subsequently found the second subject, another Aventura resident, who had recently been arrested by the Aventura Police Dept, and was out on bond for grand theft motor vehicle and exploitation of the elderly. With the assistance of Det. Moreno, Det. Sealy began to monitor this subject’s social media account and quickly discovered that not only was he selling narcotics, he was also using his social media platform to recruit additional money mules and offering to pay them $2,000.
On December 16, 2020, residential search warrants on both Aventura residences were executed. These search warrants resulted in the arrest of the money mule on elderly exploitation charges and an arrest of the main subject on narcotics possession charges. As this investigation progressed, Det. Sealy began to identify an ever-increasing list of suspects and victims. By January 2021, Det. Sealy had identified seven subjects who were receiving money from ten separate victims with a financial loss of over $500,000 from victims across the nation.
Det. Sealy learned that elderly exploitation was not the only source of the illicit funds as this group was also involved in filing fraudulent unemployment insurance claims using the victim’s personal identification information and counterfeit check deposits. Working closely with State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle’s office, Det. Sealy was able to establish evidence linking all seven of his identified subjects to include the main subject to the scheme.
Det. Sealy then began to plan the largest single-day operation the Aventura Police Department has ever conducted. The subjects resided in both Miami-Dade and Broward counties, so he needed to coordinate with Broward agencies to successfully pull off the simultaneous arrest and search warrant operations. Detective Sealy immediately reached out to other police department Economic Crime Unit Detectives from Sunny Isles Beach, Hollywood, North Miami and Ft. Lauderdale who quickly agreed to assist. Det. Sealy then obtained six arrest warrants for his subjects on charges including but not limited to Money Laundering, Theft from a Person 65 or Older, Grand Theft, Organized Scheme to Defraud and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering.
By the end of the day on March 16th, OPERATION VIGILANT GUARDIAN resulted in the successful execution of three search warrants and five arrests spanning two counties. On March 23rd, the final search and arrest warrant was executed in Hollywood resulting in the 6th arrest of the operation.
