A current Sweetwater police sergeant and a former detective were arrested on racketeering charges Tuesday, Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials said.
Sgt. Reny Armando Garcia, 46, and former Det. William Garcia, 42, are charged with one count of organized scheme to defraud, one count of racketeering, and one count of conspiracy to commit racketeering, FDLE officials said.
Garcia was already behind bars at a federal penitentiary in Virginia following his conviction in 2014 in an identity theft and fraud case.
Officials said an investigation revealed an ongoing pattern of criminal activity by members of the Sweetwater Police Department that spanned several years and affected dozens of victims.
Members of the department were engaged in battery, theft, fraud, burglary, and other violent crimes against civilians, often specifically targeting foreign-born victims with limited knowledge of the English language and the U.S. legal system, in order to exploit these victims’ vulnerabilities, officials said.
"The arrests are part of a larger investigation based on decades of corruption, cultivated from the top down, at the Sweetwater Police Department and City," FDLE said in a statement.
NBC 6 reported in 2015 that an FDLE audit found roughly 7,400 issues and violations inside the Sweetwater Police Department.
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Officials said their latest investigation hasn't revealed criminal wrongdoing by the current Sweetwater police administration, and said the chief has fully cooperated in their investigation.
Garcia was booked into jail Tuesday, where he was being held without bond. Garcia will be transported to Miami to face the charges, officials said.
