Daytona Beach, FL - All 5 of the people wanted for their alleged roles in a multi-million dollar Volusia County gift card fraud operation are now in custody.
That’s the word from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office after it announced those arrests as part of Operation Plastic Paradise on Wednesday.
VCSO spokesman Gary Davidson says a total of 23 people are now charged after Dawn Renee Campbell and Mia Kay Davis were located by deputies.
“Campbell turned herself in at the Volusia County Branch Jail in Daytona Beach Tuesday night,” Davidson added. “Davis was arrested [Wednesday] morning by the Port Orange Police Department.”
The 40-year-old Campbell – a Sanford resident – is held on $20,000 bond at Volusia County Jail on charges of racketeering and conspiracy to engage in a pattern of racketeering activity.
Davis – a 25-year-old DeLand resident – is held on the same charges and bond amount as Campbell.
The other 3 wanted people – 48-year-old Peter John LaPlaca, 47-year-old Denise Marie LaPlaca and 34-year-old Trenise Shenelle Wilds of Deltona – were all in custody by Monday night, hours after VCSO and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the initial arrests.
The LaPlacas – who are homeless – and Wilds are also held on the same charges and bond amount as Campbell and Davis.
Investigators say many of the arrested in this 7-months-long undercover operation shoplifted merchandise from big-box stores and then returned the goods to those stores in exchange for in-store credit placed onto gift cards.
VCSO says those people would then sell the gift cards for less than face value at Cash For Gift Cards store locations in Deltona and Daytona Beach. The owners of those stores – 2-year-old Dale Holcombe and 27-year-old James Holcombe – would then sell those gift cards to Internet-based companies for a profit.
VCSO says the Holcombes made more than $4 million by buying the gift cards and that they knew the gift cards were stolen before buying them. Some of the other defendants made up to tens of thousands of dollars by selling those cards to the Holcombes, per VCSO.
Click here for more information on the story.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.