A Cape Coral man is facing racketeering and fraud charges after police say he ran an international scheme that used stolen credit card information to buy hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of granite and building materials from businesses across South and Central Florida. Jorge Garcia was arrested on an active warrant on October 30 and booked into the Lee County Jail, capping off an investigation that began in April.
According to the Cape Coral Police Department, the case began in April when officers responded to a business in the city's South Industrial area over a large granite purchase made with stolen credit card information. That single complaint, police said, turned out to be a thread connecting a much bigger operation. As WINK News reported, the investigation ultimately stretched well beyond Cape Coral's city limits.
A Pattern Across Jurisdictions
Detectives with Cape Coral's Economic Crimes Unit began digging into the fraudulent transactions and say they spotted a pattern of identical activity playing out in multiple municipal jurisdictions, not just one isolated shop. That discovery, per the police department, led investigators to launch a collaborative joint initiative that eventually united eight law enforcement agencies across South and Central Florida. Investigators determined that Garcia was working in tandem with co-conspirators outside the United States to fraudulently purchase large quantities of granite and building materials using compromised credit card data, the department said.
Police put the total victim losses at approximately $422,000. A separate account from Diario Libre described the stolen goods as more than $422,000 in quartz countertops rather than granite, and it credited the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office along with police departments in Tampa, Cape Coral, Lakeland, Port St. Lucie, Orlando, and Ocoee — seven agencies in total, one fewer than the eight cited by Cape Coral police. Neither account resolves exactly which materials were taken or which additional agency joined the effort.
Slabs Returned, Case Handed to State Prosecutors
Slabs Returned, Case Handed to State Prosecutors Despite differing descriptions of the materials, both accounts agree detectives made real headway recovering what was taken. Cape Coral police said detectives successfully recovered hundreds of stolen granite slabs and returned them directly to the affected business owners rather than letting the material sit in evidence. The case has since been formally adopted for prosecution by the Statewide Prosecutor's Office, according to the department.
Garcia was transported to the Lee County Jail, where Cape Coral police said he was charged with criminal use of a two-way communication device. The same report lists racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, and organized scheme to defraud among the charges he faces. Diario Libre's account similarly reported that Garcia Perez was arrested and faced charges described as “asociación delictiva” and participation in an organized scheme to defraud, aligning with the broader picture painted by police even where some specifics diverge.
What Racketeering Charges Mean Under Florida Law
The racketeering allegations stem from Florida's organized crime statute, which under Florida Statutes Section 895.03 makes it unlawful for a person associated with an enterprise to conduct or participate in that enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity. That statute is typically reserved for cases investigators believe involve coordinated, repeated criminal conduct rather than a single isolated offense — which tracks with how Cape Coral police have described the scope of this investigation, spanning multiple cities and, they say, international co-conspirators.
The case remains in the hands of the Statewide Prosecutor's Office, and no additional court proceedings have been detailed publicly beyond Garcia's arrest and booking.
