Ex–Hialeah Police Chief Arrested for Skimming at Least $600,000 in Cash From Drug Funds

State investigators say millions went missing from two narcotics funds controlled by former Hialeah Police Chief Sergio Velazquez, including seized cash from drug investigations.

The former police chief of Hialeah, Florida, was arrested Monday for allegedly defrauding the city after a state law enforcement investigation uncovered millions in missing cash from the department's narcotics unit.

Sergio Velazquez, the police chief of Hialeah from 2012 until 2021, is facing felony charges of grand theft, organized fraud, and structuring bank deposits to evade reporting requirements. Prosecutors allege he siphoned off at least $600,000 from narcotics funds and seized cash from 2020 to 2021, then attempted to launder the money through multiple bank accounts and a corporate entity he registered.

Although Velazquez is only charged for alleged conduct over a roughly one-year period, investigators say that they can't account for several million dollars more that disappeared since 2015.

"This case revealed that Velazquez violated the trust and integrity expected of him as police chief," Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) Special Agent in Charge John Vecchio said in a press conference Monday at the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office.

The evidence laid out against Velazquez is a particularly brazen example of the perverse police incentives created by the drug war and civil asset forfeiture, a tool that allows police to seize cash and property suspected of being connected to criminal activity such as drug trafficking, even if the owner isn't charged with a crime.

In an arrest warrant and affidavit obtained by Miami public radio outlet WLRN, an FDLE agent said the FDLE was first alerted to the alleged theft by the Hialeah police chief who took over the department after Velazquez was dismissed in 2021.

When the new chief opened a safe in his office, he discovered evidence bags with cash related to recent drug seizure cases—but tens of thousands of dollars were missing.

An ensuing three-year FDLE investigation found that cash had continually disappeared from safes inside the police chief's administrative suite. That cash came from two sources: a city-funded "petty cash" account for long-term narcotics investigations, and money seized through civil asset forfeiture as a result of those narcotics investigations.

When FDLE investigators checked the Hialeah Police Department's requests for "petty cash" funds against the expenses filed by the narcotics unit over an 11-month period in 2020 and 2021, more than $300,000 was unaccounted for. 

Velazquez's arrest warrant says that from 2015 to 2021, his office requested funds for narcotics operations totaling $2.8 million. But investigators could only match roughly $200,000 to legitimate expenditures.

Additionally, $1 million was missing from court-awarded civil asset forfeitures.

Civil liberties groups have long argued that civil forfeiture creates perverse profit incentives for police, and over the years there have been plenty of examples of officers who abused the process to rake in money for their departments, or simply stole to line their own pockets.

In New York in 2023, an Albany County sheriff's deputy was charged with stealing more than $68,000 from the department's federal forfeiture funds account.

Over in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 2020, $150,000 went "missing" from the county drug task force's asset forfeiture fund.

In 2021, federal prosecutors charged two former police officers in Rohnert Park, California, with extorting money and marijuana from motorists during traffic stops.

Numerous police departments and district attorney offices have gotten into trouble for using asset forfeiture revenues as slush funds for frivolous expenses and fancy swag.

The problem with having a big pile of illicit cash, though, as any successful drug trafficker could testify, is spending it without getting caught.

At the same time that money kept disappearing from the Hialeah Police Department's narcotics funds, FDLE investigators allege that Velazquez deposited $2,000,000 in cash into personal and business accounts, splitting the deposits among multiple accounts and avoiding sums that would trigger automatic reporting requirements.

According to the affidavit, Velazquez also registered a corporation and spent tens of thousands of dollars from his business accounts on luxury watches and high-end brands such as Cartier, Louis Vuitton, and Versace.

Once Velazquez left office, the arrest warrant notes, the bookkeeping problems at the Hialeah Police Department suddenly stopped.

Comments

[Rick James]

And people say diversity isn’t our strength.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

is facing felony charges of grand theft, organized fraud, and structuring bank deposits to evade reporting requirements.

One of these isn’t a crime.

[Get To Da Chippah]

He’s a police officer, so maybe none of them are crimes.

[Wizard4169]

If you mean structuring, that charge was warranted in this case. I agree that structuring charges are bullshit when there’s no proof of any underlying crime, but this guy was clearly trying to cover up criminal activity.

[sarcasmic]

If he had stuck to robbing members of the public, or skimming off the top before the money was turned in to Evidence, then he’d still have his job. Not only that, but he’d likely get qualified immunity as well.

[JesseAz (Prime Meanster of Sarcasia)]

Thank God DOGE didn’t find this or you’d have to rail against it.

[Don't look at me! (Not signed with autopen)]

It’s not enough money to bother with.

[Uncle Jay]

Who says crime (prevention) doesn’t pay?

[Liberty_Belle]

I’m sure this is Qualified Immunity. How was a reasonable officer supposed to know that you can’t embezzle money in Hialeah ? Did the law specifically say Hialeah ? No? Well then, case dismissed.

/sarcasm

[Get To Da Chippah]

Totality of circumstances. The solution is more training.

[Don't look at me! (Not signed with autopen)]

More money needed for training.

[TJJ2000]

Hialeah, Florida – Majority Democrat.
https://bestneighborhood.org/conservative-vs-liberal-map-hialeah-fl/

Isn’t that what the people voted for? Government to run around STEALING from everyone?

[Stupid Government Tricks]

Sure, but the government thieves are supposed to pass it on, not keep it. It’s OK to steal FOR the government, but not FROM the government.

[Use the Schwartz]

The Good Guise.

“It was the D.A.’s fault,” “A few bad apples,” “There’s more to the story,” and other chestnuts.

[Use the Schwartz]

p.s. never trust anyone who looks like a thumb.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Did this officer get home safe? Isn’t that the only thing that matters?

[JohnZ]

Sheriff Grady Judd, he ain’t.
I’ve read such reports in the past, where the ahem, sheriffs purchased boats, even small homes to bring their mistresses to for fun and games. Vacations to Hawaii, Las Vegas, you name it.
Who said, crime doesn’t pay?

[KiwiDude]

“ Once Velazquez left office, the arrest warrant notes, the bookkeeping problems at the Hialeah Police Department suddenly stopped”
Shirley this means the real thief took a break for a while…

[AT]

When the new chief opened a safe in his office, he discovered evidence bags with cash related to recent drug seizure cases—but tens of thousands of dollars were missing.

I know you’re trying to zero in on this part, but I just can’t help but wonder why NOBODY ever came to CLAIM that money as their lawful property.

Seems weird that nobody would want to assert their right to tens of thousands of dollars. Doesn’t that seem weird? Super weird.

Civil liberties groups have long argued that civil forfeiture creates perverse profit incentives for police

Yea, maybe – but a direct short-circuit to that would be if all the lawful owners of that lawful property show up to properly assert their lawful right to it – if only so that no such opportunities might present themselves to bad cops.

Be a lot of egg on their face if someone showed up to assert their legal right to a duffel bag full of gangster rolls, and that bag was a few dozen rolls short, am I right?

Why don’t the lawful owners of that lawful property show up to claim it? It bamboozles me!

[Garth Vader]

You really don’t know how civil asset forfeiture works, do you?

[Wizard4169]

If we listed all the things AT doesn’t understand, we’d be here all day and probably tomorrow too.

[AT]

I’m actually rather tired of explaining it to ACABs who just want to stick with their ignorance on the subject.

[Wizard4169]

This is stupid even by your standards. Nowhere in the article was it suggested that the money was wrongfully seized, an idea you pulled straight out of your ass. It’s also totally irrelevant. Stealing is stealing, no matter where the stolen money originally came from.

[AT]

Oh, so it WAS rightfully seized and you’re in agreement with the CAF seizure. Good. I knew you’d come around eventually.

You’ll note I never once defended the skimming by the cops. As you say, stealing is stealing.

I’m just saying, cops would be prevented from stealing if property-owners came to claim their goods. Why don’t “victims” of CAF ever do that? You’d think they’d want their money back, right? There’s no sense to be made of it, since CAF is apparently such a bad practice that only harms innocent people. Bamboozling, I tell you!

[Get To Da Chippah]

I’m just saying, cops would be prevented from stealing if property-owners came to claim their goods.

Idiot. You’ve posted in articles about people LITERALLY DYING while waiting for the lengthy legal process of getting their property back is completed. It’s not as simple as the citizen saying “That’s my stuff you took” and the cops saying “Oh, okay here you go.”

Why don’t “victims” of CAF ever do that?

Imbecile, this article is from just two months ago.

https://reason.com/2025/04/16/the-man-who-fought-chicago-for-his-cadillac-and-never-got-it-back/

[AT]

You should probably read that article, instead of just regurgitating ACAB talking points vomited into your mouth by hacks like CJ.

Quote: a state judge declared Byrd innocent in the county’s asset forfeiture case against his car.

He didn’t “LITERALLY DIE waiting.” That car was declared rightfully his well within his lifetime. And even if it hadn’t been, your remark is a pathetic attempt to pander to emotion and misrepresent the realities of appealing a CAF to make it seem like it’s years and years of dispute and paperwork.

It’s not as complicated as you want to pretend it is. That’s an attempt to slip the fact that people don’t challenge CAF because they are far more often than not actual criminals and that which was seized was part of their criminal activities.

Rightful owners of rightful property have no objection to appealing a CAF. And they invariably succeed. The only time they don’t is when they – they – fail to properly assert their rights. Which is a standard held across ALL civil litigation, not just CAF.

[Get To Da Chippah]

Quote: a state judge declared Byrd innocent in the county’s asset forfeiture case against his car.

After griping repeatedly about Reason authors not providing full facts you intentionally truncate a sentence in the article? You’re as much a dishonest hack as you claim the article authors here are.

Here’s the full line: Even after a state judge declared Byrd innocent in the county’s asset forfeiture case against his car, Chicago refused to release the vehicle until Byrd paid thousands of dollars in impound fines and fees under the city’s municipal code, which didn’t include a defense for innocent owners.

Which makes what I said true. In Byrd’s specific case, two government offices (Cook County, and City of Chicago) both laid claim to his car and only one was ordered to relinquish it. So, yes, he died before he could get his car back.

It’s not as complicated as you want to pretend it is. That’s an attempt to slip the fact that people don’t challenge CAF because they are far more often than not actual criminals and that which was seized was part of their criminal activities.

Your only evidence of that is “Hey, they didn’t try to get their stuff back.” And, as has been explained to you before, the costs involved in time and money can often exceed the value of the property stolen — by design. I know you would move heaven and earth and spend billions of dollars and trillions of hours to get a bent nickel back if the cops wrongfully seized it, but not everyone has such luxury, internet tough guy.

Rightful owners of rightful property have no objection to appealing a CAF. And they invariably succeed.

Invariably? Another lie, like so many others.

[AT]

Chicago refused to release the vehicle until Byrd paid thousands of dollars in impound fines and fees under the city’s municipal code

That’s a completely separate issue, unrelated to CAF.

So, yes, he died before he could get his car back.

He could have gotten his car back any time he wanted. He chose to prioritize other expenditures.

And, as has been explained to you before, the costs involved in time and money can often exceed the value of the property stolen — by design.

And, has been similarly explained, that’s a cost-benefit analysis of YOUR OWN choosing. You don’t get to lay that on the cops.

No different than if you get into a car accident, you’ll receive compensation based upon your claim for damages. Whether you decide to fix your car with it is YOUR decision.

I know you would move heaven and earth and spend billions of dollars and trillions of hours to get a bent nickel back if the cops wrongfully seized it, but not everyone has such luxury, internet tough guy.

And you continue to misrepresent how “difficult” a CAF appeal is. Keep chucking up those regurgitated worms, ACAB boy.

[Daryl James]

First thing you get wrong: You cannot just show up and claim cash in a civil forfeiture case. You must hire an attorney and navigate a long bureaucratic process. This costs money. And because civil forfeiture cases are not criminal, you have no right to counsel. You must pay for your own defense. If the police seize $5,000 from you, and hiring an attorney costs more than $5,000, then the smart move is to cut your losses and walk away. Guilt or innocence is irrelevant.

[AT]

You must hire an attorney

No, you don’t actually have to do that. Might help, but it’s not required.

You must pay for your own defense. If the police seize $5,000 from you, and hiring an attorney costs more than $5,000, then the smart move is to cut your losses and walk away.

That’s a cost-benefit analysis of your own choosing. Don’t go blaming the cops for that.

[Garth Vader]

News flash: If you let people break some laws, they will eventually break all laws, and every cop will eventually become as corrupt as those in banana republics.

[AT]

Let’s talk about illegal immigration now.