ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. — The St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office (SLCSO) has made two arrests in connection with an alleged cloned vehicle operation.
Cortez Rashad Ash, 33, and Josuaire Pierre, 33, of Port St. Lucie, were arrested after an investigation into a company called Drizzle Drip & Mobile Detailing, LLC.
WATCH: Arrests made in 'sophisticated' vehicle-cloning operation
A search warrant was issued Tuesday for a home in the 200 block of Eyerly Avenue in Port St. Lucie, where five vehicles with swapped vehicle identification numbers (VIN) were recovered.
The sheriff's office says one of those recovered vehicles had been cloned, and once the actual VIN was found, investigators discovered that the vehicle had been reported stolen to the Orange County Sheriff's Office in July 2024.
“This seems to be a pretty sophisticated operation," Sheriff Richard Del Toro told WPTV.
The investigation started back in April, after Polk County reached out to them about a stolen vehicle. Now detectives tell WPTV the possible vehicle-cloning operation could stretch from St. Lucie County to Indian River County.
"They take advantage of people that are just unsuspecting," said Del Toro.
Detectives said the business may be involved in a vehicle-cloning operation. That's when a vehicle identification number is copied from a legally registered vehicle and used on an unregistered or stolen vehicle.
"They're cloning the paperwork, they're cloning the registrations, the title and the VINs," said Detective Carver with the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office.
Detectives believe they would purchase vehicles from salvage or auction, use the VIN number, and place them on stolen vehicles to sell at a lesser price.
"Your professionals are going through and changing everything they can," said Carter.
“It's a very sophisticated scam that they got going," said Del Toro.
It's an issue Nick Lambiase, who works at JW Automotive in Fort Pierce, is aware of.
"It's nothing new,” said Lambiase. “It's been around for a while."
Lambiase said drivers need to be aware of these scams before buying a car.
"People just have to be informed when they purchase their vehicles,” said Lambiase. “They got to be smart about what they buy."
The sheriff’s office said 16 vehicles have been seized during the investigation. Eight have been seized in Indian River County, with one arrest.
"They were intending to dupe a lot of people,” said Del Toro. “Unfortunately for them, it caught up to them."
The two suspects in St. Lucie County have been charged with grand theft of a motor vehicle.
