Two Miami-Dade traffic school employees are accused of turning the state’s driver testing process into a shortcut service, signing off on exams that undercover applicants either never took or clearly should have failed. Investigators say those alleged rubber stamps were enough for both undercover operatives to walk away with permanent Florida driver’s licenses.
Luis Vidal, 55, of Millennium Traffic School Corp. in Sweetwater, and Daniel Delgado, 57, of Amigos Traffic School Inc. in Miami, were arrested Tuesday on charges that include unlawful use or possession of a driver’s license, official misconduct by a public servant, and falsifying or tampering with public records, according to CBS Miami. The arrests capped a joint probe involving the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, the Miami-Dade Tax Collector’s Office, the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles department and the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office.
According to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, Vidal certified that an undercover deputy had completed the required state examinations even though the deputy never took them. In a separate undercover operation, Delgado allegedly signed off on another deputy’s driving agility test despite multiple traffic violations that investigators say should have meant an automatic fail.
The investigation kicked off after the Miami-Dade Tax Collector’s Office flagged suspicious information while trying to clamp down on appointment scalping and other abuses in the driver licensing system. The office had already warned back in January that unapproved driving and traffic schools could put residents at risk and erode confidence in the process, according to the Miami-Dade County Tax Collector’s Office.
Arrests Follow Earlier Miami-Dade License Cheating Cases
The latest arrests land in the middle of a busy stretch for Miami-Dade officials trying to clean up driver license testing. Just last Wednesday, three men were taken into custody after authorities said one of them used hidden cameras and earpieces to feed answers to two others during a computer-based exam, as reported by Local 10.
Earlier in the crackdown, high-tech cheating attempts involving concealed recording gear at a Miami-Dade licensing site had already drawn attention. That earlier tech-heavy scheme, followed by the arrests of traffic school employees now accused of falsifying official test records, suggests investigators are targeting both would-be drivers trying to game the system and the insiders who might help them pull it off.
What Happens Next
For now, the allegations against Vidal and Delgado remain just that, and the investigation is still active. The Miami-Dade Tax Collector’s Office says it is conducting a comprehensive review of driver license transactions involving private driving schools, while investigators work to determine whether additional people, including any middlemen or brokers, were involved, according to CBS Miami.
