MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — The Martin County Sheriff's Office announced arrests in a retail-theft ring, dubbed Operation Hammer Time.
Major Ruben Romero said Johnny Batista, 19; Roberto Hernandez-Castro, 39; and Roberto Aldana-Ferrera, 31 were all involved in a series of burglaries at hardware stores across Martin, Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties from December 2025 to April 2026.
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He said at least 40 stores across 13 counties were burglarized, then the stolen goods were taken back to Miami-Dade County, where the suspects lived, to be sold. He said roughly $500,000 worth of property was stolen, in addition to damage to stores.
Aldana-Ferrera is in custody in Georgia, Batista was arrested in February for a vehicle theft and is in Martin County Jail, and Hernandez-Castro has a warrant out for his arrest.
Maikell Fleitas, a fourth suspect, is deceased.
According to an affidavit from MCSO, hardware stores in Stuart, Lake Worth, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, West Palm Beach, Fort Pierce and Jupiter were targeted, as were stores in Broward County.
They say the crews would use a sledgehammer or other blunt object to smash the glass, and that they would often complete the thefts within minutes, before police arrived or alarms were triggered.
"There's already inflation that we notice severely in our state, and the more they steal, the more damage they cause, the more expensive things are," Romero said of the impact of these thefts. "People can't go to work because they can't afford the tools."
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Investigators say Batista is connected to the first known theft at Sewell Hardware in Stuart in December 2025.
However, Romero said there are burglaries that happened previous to December, and they are still looking for one other suspect.
The suspects are facing charges of racketeering, burglary over $1000 in damage (while masked), burglary of an occupied structure and burglary of an unoccupied structure.
