DORAL, Fla. — A man is facing three felony charges after authorities say he and a co-conspirator impersonated legitimate shippers and made off with nearly $2 million worth of iPhones from a Doral FedEx warehouse.
However, authorities say state troopers captured him near Gainesville later that evening thanks to AirTags included with the shipment.
Jeffery Lydell Moore, 61, of Seneca, South Carolina, is now facing three felonies in Miami-Dade County. Doral police identified his alleged co-conspirator as Robert Rashawn Soto, who they said was still at large as of Monday.
According to an arrest warrant from the Doral Police Department, it appears that the suspects knew about an impending shipment of electronics.
Police said on March 17, the FedEx Ship Center at 10000 NW 21st St. received a call from a man named “John Washington,” claiming he was with Medley-based freight forwarder Union Logistics & Worldstar Nexgen.
“The caller advised that their warehouse was undergoing renovations and that they were unable to receive deliveries, requesting instead that employees be permitted to pick up the shipment,” the warrant states. “In response, (the FedEx employee) informed the caller that any individual retrieving the packages would be required to present both a valid government-issued identification, an employee identification and an email from a company email address stating his intentions.”
Police said Soto showed up two days later to pick up the shipment, presenting an identification card with the real name of the warehouse manager at Union Logistics, whose name was on the shipment, and “John Washington” sent an email from a legitimate-looking address.
Authorities said Soto and Moore brought a 20-foot U-Haul truck to the loading bay and began loading it with boxes of iPhones.
As they were loading packages, police said the real manager of Union Logistics showed up at the FedEx warehouse. According to the warrant, his regular FedEx driver told him “that the shipment would not be delivered because arrangements had been made for it to be picked up,” leading him to head to the warehouse.
Police described an exchange between the Union Logistics manager, identified as “Witness 4,” and a FedEx employee, identified as “Witness 1.”
“Witness 4 questioned Witness 1 regarding why the shipment had been held for pickup instead of being delivered,” the warrant states. “Witness 1 advised Witness 4 that two individuals claiming to be employees were in the loading area retrieving the packages. Witness 4 immediately instructed Witness 1 to stop the individuals and hold them for law enforcement.”
The FedEx employee radioed a co-worker, “instructing him to cease loading the U-Haul,” police said.
That’s when police said Moore and Soto hopped into the truck, with Moore behind the wheel, and took off with 38 boxes of iPhone 17 Pro Max devices. The nearly 1,800 phones were worth $1,896,674.
Authorities said the U-Haul’s license plate and the included AirTags pinged at several locations along the Interstate 75 corridor, including in Port Charlotte and Sarasota. Authorities said after receiving a ping in Alachua County, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper stopped the U-Haul on I-75 and took Moore into custody.
Soto wasn’t in the box truck, authorities said.
Moore was extradited to South Florida on Thursday to face charges of first-degree grand theft, conspiracy to commit cargo theft and organized scheme to defraud.
As of Monday afternoon, he was being held in Miami-Dade County’s Metrowest Detention Center on a $2.5 million bond.
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