Two Miami-Dade food inspectors were arrested in a nearly year-long corruption investigation that found they were extorting restaurant owners out of thousands of dollars, authorities said.
Two Miami-Dade food inspectors were arrested in a nearly year-long corruption investigation that found they were extorting restaurant owners out of thousands of dollars, authorities said.
"Operation Grease Trap" began in April of 2024 after Miami-Dade Police were contacted by the restaurant owners who alleged extortion by county employees, Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz said at a news conference Wednesday with Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.
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The employees were going to restaurants and extorting money by threatening to have restaurants shut down or be issued large fines, Cordero-Stutz said.
They claimed the restaurants had faulty grease traps and told the victims that instead of paying a fine, they could give them cash, Cordero- Stutz said.
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“They felt like they were being robbed. It was their business on the one side, they were going to get violations or shut down or they pay of this guy for a couple hundred dollars," Fernandez Rundle said.
A month after the investigation began, in May of 2024, police arrested Charles E. Bryant II, an inspector from the Miami-Dade Department of Environmental Resources Management.
A second suspect who also worked for the department, Craig A. Bethel, was later arrested as the investigation continued.
Both men worked in the same office but used the scheme independently, police said.
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The pair face charges including unlawful compensation, unlawful scheme to defraud, and official misconduct, Cordero-Stutz said.
Police said the employees targeted at least 15 businesses and stole over $14,000, but believe there could be more victims.
"From one victim it led us to a second victim and that led us to a second subject. We do believe that there are other victims out there and other people possibly committing this type of extortion and it’s so important that our community understands that if you have that information please come forward," Cordero-Stutz said.
The county later released a statement on the arrests.
"At Miami-Dade County, we hold our employees to the highest standard as they perform important work on behalf of the public. As soon as the Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources (RER) learned last year that a former employee was allegedly extorting businesses, we acted immediately to launch an investigation and report to law enforcement. Our cooperation with the then-Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) and later the Sheriff’s office resulted in the successful arrest of two former inspectors that were engaging in the same criminal behavior. And as a result of our internal investigation, the inspectors are no longer employed with Miami-Dade County," the statement read. “Additionally, we have taken several steps to prevent any criminal behavior in the future, including working to outfit all inspection staff in RER-DERM with body cameras and standardizing RER’s vehicle tracking system operations across the entire department to improve monitoring (RER requires that all vehicles have location trackers installed). We are grateful to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office for their diligence in arresting these bad actors and are committed to continuing our collaboration with them.”
A restaurant owner or operator who may have been targeted is asked to call The Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office Public Corruption Unit at 305-599-3121.
