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Florida man arrested for 56th time in Pasco Co., accused of running million-dollar fraud operation

Posted at 5:10 PM, Apr 23, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-24 07:57:49-04

Not only do investigators say Daniel Santos was ripping hundreds of people off, but they say he flaunted it on social media.

“He holds stacks of cash, firearms, and he’s not scared to show you the lifestyle that he’s living using other people’s hard earned money,” said Pasco County Detective Spencer Hubbell.

Hubbell has an entire file cabinet dedicated to catching Santos, whose been arrested 55 times in Pasco County.

Hubbell said this latest arrest should finally stick.

Investigators said Santos was running a fraud operation using stolen debit and credit cards and bogus checks to bring in millions of dollars.

“It’s feasible he was doing between $5,000 to $10,000 a day at times,” Hubbell said.

Detectives say Santos, a suspected members of the Bloods gang, would raid accounts until the bank realized what was happening.

In most cases, those banks would take the loss and the customers didn’t actually lose any money.

U.S. marshals arrested Santos in Miami where he was living in a luxury condo.

“Mr. Santos has never had a job. He’s never paid taxes. But he’s living the high life on everybody else's dime,” he said.

Along with the fraud, investigators say Santos has a violent criminal history, including sexual battery on a victim under 16 and trying to run down a police officer during a traffic stop.

They say he was always able to make bail and go back to his criminal behavior. 

“He’s treating it as a game, so I’m hopeful the game is over and we won this time,” Hubbell said.

The sheriff’s office said Santos got the stolen credit cards by buying them or stealing them, which included mailbox hopping.