MIAMI – After a woman called the police to report that she was being held hostage, police officers walked into an apartment on Tuesday in Miami-Dade County’s Fontainebleau neighborhood and found her and seven others who were recovering from surgery, records show.
Police officers also met three workers who told them Maidelys Sanchez paid them in cash to care for the women in the apartment at the Royal Palm Condominiums, at 7771 NW 7th St., records show.
Recommended Videos
Detectives also learned that the women had paid from $1,600 to $2,100 for the care, according to the arrest report.
Police officers arrested Sanchez, 38, who lives in Miami-Dade’s The Crossings neighborhood, at about 2:25 p.m., on Tuesday, in the apartment that detectives described as “an unlicensed medical recovery facility” with “hazardous waste violations,” records show.
Anne Sosiak, a registered nurse with the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, the state agency responsible for oversight of the state’s Medicaid program, told detectives the agency had issued Sanchez three previous notices over the unlicensed activity, according to the arrest report.
Sanchez is facing charges in three cases. Two of the cases with the police medical crimes unit were for hazardous waste violations, litter, nuisances injurious to health, and failure to track biomedical waste.
The case with the police human trafficking unit was for operating an assisted living facility without a license, a first-degree felony. Miami-Dade corrections officers released Sanchez on a $27,000 bond on Wednesday, records show.
Sanchez’s arraignment hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m., on April 27, and Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Daryl E. Trawick will be presiding over the three cases, according to court records
Detectives were asking anyone with information about the case to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.