Deputies Recover $4.7 Million in Equipment Stemming From Heist

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office announced today that they recovered $4.7 million worth of laptops and computer equipment that was stolen from a military contractor’s facility last March.

Two suspects have been indicted in the case, and both were charged with theft of government property.

“It is a huge case,” said Hillsborough Sheriff David Gee during a press conference this morning.

Rolando Coca, 55, was the mastermind behind this cargo theft operation, Gee said,  in which a total of $7.4 million worth of laptops and computers bound for U.S. troops were taken from iGov Technologies, a private contractor for the Department of Defense that supplies communication and computer network equipment to U.S. Special Forces.

Coca, the head of a well-organized cargo theft group, was arrested on Jan. 25 in South Florida. He will be brought to Hillsborough County and tried in federal court.

Emil Benitez was the middleman in the operation, the sheriff’s office said. He was arrested about a month after the heist and has been sentenced to two years in federal prison.

According to the sheriff’s office, the stolen computer equipment did not contain sensitive information.

“This was very choreographed and performed at a high skill level,” Gee said of the burglary, which began on March 6 just before 4 p.m.

A red Lincoln Navigator pulled up to the iGov warehouse in southeast Tampa and dropped off two suspects, who climbed to the top of the building, cut a hole in the roof and rappelled down into the facility, according to the sheriff’s office.

“Once they were inside, they were able to defeat the alarm systems,” Gee said.

During the next nine and a half hours, 10 suspects lifted the cargo. Video surveillance captured the suspects’ movements the day before and the day of the burglary, the sheriff’s office said.

But perhaps the most valuable footage in the investigation came from a McDonald’s drive through camera, which captured Coca and another suspect in the Lincoln Navigator ordering food a mile away from iGov.

“That’s really one of the things that broke the case for us,” Gee said.

After seizing the vehicle in April, a piece of foam insulation found inside matched the material from the roof of iGov.

The sheriff’s office worked with several agencies in this investigation, including the FBI.

“Federal authorities were well aware of (Coca) in South Florida,” Gee said.

FBI agents identified him immediately from the McDonald’s footage, Gee said.

In an undercover operation last April, Hillsborough detectives worked with DEA agents and an informant to buy 30 laptops for $15,000 in South Florida. Detectives then set up a second deal to buy 1,000 laptops for $50,000.

The operation led to Miami, where cargo thefts usually end up, Gee said. At an abandoned warehouse, detectives found part of the stolen cargo valued at $4.7 million. Benitez was apprehended in the sting.

There are still about 1,000 of the stolen computers on the streets, Gee said.

The sheriff’s office continues to find them on Amazon and eBay, and the investigation is ongoing.

“There are many more suspects that we are continuing to look at,” Gee added.