A raid at an apartment in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood on Tuesday revealed rooms full of specialized fraud equipment and extensive personal data belonging to dozens of victims, police say.
Miami police arrested three people on several felony offenses.
According to the arrest report, officers went to the apartment at 5850 NW 15th Ave. at 2:30 p.m.; a judge had signed a search warrant for the location on Friday as part of a Miami Gardens police human trafficking investigation into resident Malique Shamar Newberry, who was arrested in December in a sex trafficking case.
Police said Newberry, 24, exited the home after cops arrived and was taken into custody.
Kathleen Emem, 38, and Master Myles Jackson, 24, “refused to exit the residence and then went back inside and slammed the door,” according to the complaint.
A SWAT squad entered and apprehended both of them “after about a five-to-seven-minute standoff,” police said.
Inside, they claimed to have discovered a “residence (that) was converted into an organized fraud operation.”
According to police, a search turned up one room with a purple gun, two credit card skimmers, multiple credit cards in Jackson’s name, and five credit and debit cards in the name of one of the victims.
Another room included a stolen Glock, “hundreds of blank checks,” various blank credit and debit cards, a printer, and several electronics, including computers and iPhones, according to authorities.
Authorities discovered correspondence in Jackson and Newberry’s names, including those related to their criminal cases, as well as over 15 cheques written in the names of businesses and victims totaling $38,000.
Miami Gardens police and a US Secret Service agent then questioned the trio, who authorities said “did not have any reasonable explanation” for what they saw inside the property.
According to police, Newberry claimed ownership of both guns and stated that the home “belongs to Jackson and that he does not know anything about fraud.”
According to the report, Emem told officers that she is a social worker. Meanwhile, detectives claimed Jackson refused to speak.
Police arrested all three on counts of organized fraud, using a firearm to commit a felony, identity theft, and grand theft of a firearm.
All three were being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Wednesday morning, according to documents.
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