[Half Shell]

Here is who you can blame for your boat insurance being so high in FL:

1. The owners of Netcycle Trading in Doral, FL (Miami) Nadia Esperanza Ledesma and her husband Carlos Orlando Ledesma.
2. Roberto Marrero-Cisneros who supplied fake serial numbers
3. Osmani Valdivia Perez of Leigh Acres, FL (Lee County) who financed it all.
4. Osmani's nephew Tomas Vale Valdivia in Mexico and also helped finance it and was previously arrested for smuggling migrants.

They were responsible for stealing and shipping about 600 outboard motors from Florida to Mexico between 2015-2018.

"The defendants face up to five years in prison at their sentencings in May before U.S. District Judge Robert Scola, and must pay forfeiture penalties totaling between $50,000 and $120,000 each to the U.S. government."

The punishment... "up to 5 years and a fine between $50K and $120K" for stealing and exporting motors valued between $9.5M and $25M.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article273117655.html

Four plead guilty to stealing 600 outboard engines in Florida, shipping them to Mexico

Four Florida residents have pleaded guilty to fencing about 600 stolen outboard engines worth millions of dollars and shipping them illegally to Mexico, according to federal authorities in Miami.

www.orlandosentinel.com

 

[Redtail]

Those massive penalties should scare off any potential thief's and render your outboard motor safe and theft proof! Now don't you feel safer!

 

[Smackdaddy53]

Public hangings should be brought back and a lot of this behavior would cease.

 

[Half Shell]

This place is right down the street from my barbershop.

If you don't know.. Doral is rather upscale industrial and business area with some residential areas and known for Trump National Golf Resort, Cruise line HQs, a Federal Reserve, a military HQ, feds and police.... and also lots of warehouses and "logistics" companies, money laundering, Medicare fraud, illegal minerals from South America, illegal traffiking of animals, human trafficking, and now apparently... boat motors.

It's like Disneyland for criminal networks and scams as long as you speak Spanish. If you speak Russian you need drive 10 miles east.

 

[Fishshoot]

I bet that's where my buddy's OG chittum went. Flat on road to flamingo and when he git back skiff was gone.... few yrs ago

 

[Smackdaddy53]

I bet that's where my buddy's OG chittum went. Flat on road to flamingo and when he git back skiff was gone.... few yrs ago

I wouldn’t leave a boat, truck or trailer on the side of the road no matter if it were an old POS or a brand new high dollar rig

 

[NealXB2003]

Not nearly punishment enough

 

[permitchaser]

How bout firing squad with outboard spark plugs as bullets

 

[ikankecil]

I've bought two boats in Florida (and lived there) in the past, both ended up having very sketchy pasts that weren't immediately known via the title. Fun state but all manner of shady stuff going on in the boating world down yonder.

 

[SkiffaDeeDooDah]

Public hangings should be brought back and a lot of this behavior would cease.

YES ^^
A cable channel - could be called The Hanging Channel, and be Rated PG-13.

 

[coconutgroves]

So the theft was valued at 2.5m to 9m? But they pay restitution of 50k to 120k?

Wha? Sure, insurance covered some of the theft, but that is rediculous. They should be on a chain gang washing down and cleaning every person's boat every day from where they stole the engines. For life. I'd go for that over hanging.

 

[topnative2]

How about decoy boats???

 

[darktide]

Wild the way the system works. Go to doral frequently for work and enjoy the area honestly. Not surprised though. I feel this can happen in ANY city in the broward/dade counties nowadays with no exception.

 

[Smackdaddy53]

So the theft was valued at 2.5m to 9m? But they pay restitution of 50k to 120k?

Wha? Sure, insurance covered some of the theft, but that is rediculous. They should be on a chain gang washing down and cleaning every person's boat every day from where they stole the engines. For life. I'd go for that over hanging.

Are you surprised? Our criminal justice system is whack.

 

[MikeCockman]

Public hangings should be brought back and a lot of this behavior would cease.

Finally.. Someone who shares my views!!

 

[Steve_Mevers]

Those Miami boys have been coming over to the west coast since the 80's stealing outboards, one group gets arrested and another one fills the void. Once they broke into a marina, use the marinas fork lift to load crates of outboards into a cargo truck, and on the way out hooked up to a new boat on a trailer and even stole the guard dog!

 

[MikeCockman]

Those Miami boys have been coming over to the west coast since the 80's stealing outboards, one group gets arrested and another one fills the void. Once they broke into a marina, use the marinas fork lift to load crates of outboards into a cargo truck, and on the way out hooked up to a new boat on a trailer and even stole the guard dog!

Not the dog..😂😂

 

[Smackdaddy53]

Finally.. Someone who shares my views!!

I’ve got the perfect tree and everything…

 

[lemaymiami]

Boat and motor theft... Has been ongoing all the years I've been here (for me that was 1971, fresh back from a very bad place..). Everything from trailer park thieves (who might steal something and be surprised when caught with it...) all the way to pros - who might just be out on bond from their last arrest and working hard to pay for their lawyers... You can bet that the folks caught were just the tip of the iceberg and I'd assume they had more than one crew bringing them motors, boats, whatever might bring a dollar - and yes when the heat turned up here on the east coast - that west coast was easy pickings until things got hot there and over my way - we started getting hit again...

Wish it weren't so -but here's a view from a cynical old retired cop -who actually did recover an occasional stolen boat or car or motorcycle - all those years ago.. First off, long before I retired out in 1995, no department that I knew of - still had a dedicated investigator working stolen boats, etc. The cases got assigned to whoever was available - and there wasn't even a course to teach them what to look for.... (boats and motors aren't like cars at all and you really need to be on the ball to know what you were actually dealing with when someone reported gear stolen (a lot of the time back then it was much more fraud than actual theft...). Secondly, a five year sentence actually works out to be maybe a year or two in real time (unless they were on parole already - and the parole violation might actually bring more jail time...) or they'd already been convicted of the same crime's previously (and the dollar value of the stolen boat or motor had nothing to do with the actual sentence...). Big fines are a joke as well since most thieves have no assets to speak of and no legit job if and when they come out of prison...

Like I said, I'm just a cynical old guy - but this is my experience about that... Look after your gear and remember that a few of the workers in the marine industry (a very few) that have good day jobs - are also doing other things... when no one is looking...

 

[mro]

Are you surprised? Our criminal justice system is whack.

The scary part of our current circumstances,
is that they are most likely much worse than reported by both the government and fake news
and since NOTHING is getting better under the current so called leadership it's going to get worse.
Just think how the rest of the country is fairing when this stuff is happening in one of the "best" run states in our country.
Pretty sure the $hit show is just getting started.