A Krome North Service Processing Center security guard was arrested on a grand theft charge accused of stealing $5,382 from a detainee.
Matthew Christian Torres, a 31-year-old security guard employed by contractor Akima Protective Services, was arrested Monday on a third-degree grand theft charge after Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office deputies said he stole $5,382 from a detainee at the Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami-Dade County. Surveillance footage from Aug. 19 allegedly showed Torres placing the money in a log book, never recording it, then concealing it in his jacket before moving it into his pants pocket in an employee restroom. Torres, of Palmetto Bay, was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $2,500 bond.
A security guard working inside the Krome North Service Processing Center is accused of pocketing more than $5,300 that belonged to a detainee whose money he was supposed to log as property, according to a Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office arrest report.
Matthew Christian Torres, 31, of Palmetto Bay, was arrested Monday afternoon on a charge of third-degree grand theft after deputies responded to the facility at 18201 SW 12th St. following a report of missing cash. Torres worked at the ICE detention center as a security officer for Akima Protective Services, a federal contractor.
The theft came to light while staff at the facility were preparing deportation paperwork for the detainee. According to the arrest report, the detainee told staff he was missing $5,382 that should have been in his possession or logged as his property. That report prompted a review of surveillance video from Aug. 19, the day deputies say the theft occurred.
The footage, described in detail in the arrest report, shows Torres placing the detainee's money inside a facility log book but never actually recording it there. Instead, deputies say, Torres concealed the cash inside his black jacket and walked into an employee restroom. A deputy who reviewed the recording wrote that Torres then returned to the property common area, removed a clear plastic bag holding the money from inside his jacket near his chest, and transferred it into the right pocket of his beige cargo pants.
At no point, according to the report, did Torres tell a supervisor that the money belonged to the detainee, and the cash was never entered into the facility's property log. Deputies say the surveillance video provided direct evidence connecting Torres to the missing money, leading to his arrest two days later.
Torres was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami-Dade County. As of Tuesday morning, he was being held on a $2,500 bond. Jail records did not list attorney information for him as of that time.
The Krome North Service Processing Center is one of the primary immigration detention facilities in South Florida, holding detainees who are awaiting deportation proceedings or other immigration case outcomes. Security and support staff at the facility, including guards like Torres, are typically employed by private contractors hired to staff federal detention operations rather than by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement directly. Akima Protective Services holds one such contract at Krome.
Because detainees at facilities like Krome are held pending immigration proceedings, many carry cash or other valuables that are supposed to be inventoried and secured by staff, then returned when a detainee is released or deported. The property log system is meant to track those funds and prevent the kind of loss described in the arrest report. In this case, deputies say, no entry was ever made for the detainee's money.
Detainees and their advocates have said in other cases that people held in immigration custody have less ability to track or dispute discrepancies in their belongings than defendants in ordinary criminal custody. Theft cases involving staff, even when they end in an arrest, can be difficult for detainees to resolve if they are deported before restitution is paid or a criminal case concludes.
It was not immediately clear Tuesday whether the $5,382 had been recovered or returned to the detainee, or whether ICE had taken any action regarding Torres's employment status at the facility. Neither ICE nor Akima Protective Services had issued a public statement on the arrest as of Tuesday morning.
Torres faces a felony grand theft charge, which under Florida law applies to theft of property valued between $750 and $20,000. His case will proceed through the Miami-Dade County court system, where a first court appearance typically follows within days of a felony booking. No arraignment date had been publicly scheduled as of Tuesday.
