Florida: 41 illegal migrants arrested for looting during Hurricanes Milton and Helene

Florida authorities arrested 45 people accused of looting various properties, including using force and violence, while Hurricanes Milton and Helene battered much of the southern part of the state. Of the total number of detainees, 41 do not have legal residency in the country.

Sheriff Bob Gualtieri of Pinellas County, where most of the crimes were committed, said the alleged criminals took advantage of the evacuations to break into properties and steal whatever they could.

"We’ve never seen anything of this magnitude before, we’ve never seen this influx of people from out of the area that are clearly just here to steal and to pilfer and to do bad things and to target these vulnerable people," Sheriff Gualtieri told reporters, adding that even violent looting was committed: "They’re going into people’s homes, they’re taking stuff, they’re rummaging through their things. In one case, it was an armed robbery where they went in and stole from them forcibly."

The operation led officers to interrogate some 200 suspects, of whom only 45 were arrested due to lack of evidence.

Those arrested are charged with armed robbery, burglary, grand larceny and vandalism.