One leading Florida sheriff issued a response to the recent arrests of quite a few illegal aliens in his county for attempting to scavenge and loot in the aftermath of the devastating Hurricane Ian by stating that the people who live in his county will be safe from these criminals attempting to victimize his people.
These statements from Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno come in the wake of Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis warning criminals to not even attempt to go out and try looting in his state because of what quite a few Floridians have in their homes.
“I can tell you in the state of Florida, you never know what may be lurking behind somebody’s home,” expressed DeSantis. “And I would not want to chance that if I were you given that we are a Second Amendment state.”
This past Tuesday, Marceno carried out a Press conference in which he spoke about the arrests of four who had been suspected of being looters, three of whom are known to be illegal aliens. Officials with local law enforcement were able to arrest Omar Mejia Ortiz, 33, Valerie Celeste Salcedo Mena, 26, Brandon Mauricio Araya, 20, and Steve Eduardo Sanchez Araya, 20, and slammed them with charges of burglarizing unoccupied structures during a state of emergency.
“As far as looting — we have law and order in Lee County. We have law and order in our great state of Florida, and we always will,” stated Marceno. “Right now, we have four cases of looting, and I’m proud to say they’re behind bars where they belong. Our residents are going to be safe.”
Marceno stated that Mena and both of the Arayas “are here illegally in this country.”
“They were located and arrested,” tacked on Marceno. “I’m not tolerating it again.”
Marceno repeated the warning issued by DeSantis previously concerning the fact that looters are risking their lives because many Floridians are armed.
“I’m not playing. We’re not playing. We have law and order and great residents will be safe and secure. We’ve had arrests on these incidents,” tacked on Marceno. “You might walk in. You’ll be carried out.”
The arrests take place after another illegal immigrant was arrested a few days prior to Hurricane Ian making landfall for allegedly hitting and killing Deputy Mike Hartwick, who was providing security for an area of construction for I-275.
Just a few days prior to Hartwick being killed, DeSantis flew a group of 50 illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.
“Florida can confirm the two planes with illegal immigrants that arrived in Martha’s Vineyard today were part of the state’s relocation program to transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations,” expressed an official for the office of DeSantis via a statement at that time. “States like Massachusetts, New York, and California will better facilitate the care of these individuals who they have invited into our country’ by incentivizing illegal immigration through their designation as ‘sanctuary states’ and support for the Biden Administration’s open border policies.”
