MIAMI – Catching a 32-year-old man with a reckless obsession for illegal drag racing that he documented on Instagram took the effort of specialized teams in 2022, but detectives said he couldn’t keep himself from speeding and after a police pursuit he was back behind bars, records show.
On Thursday afternoon, Jose Alfredo Martinez, of Kendall was back at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center after appearing in bond court. He is facing a new charge of aggravated fleeing to elude a law enforcement officer, a first-degree felony.
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Despite having 26 criminal cases pending, including 23 warrant cases for facilitating drag racing on a highway, detectives reported Martinez decided to drive with a suspended license and speed away from police officers and Florida Highway Patrol troopers on Jan. 5 in Miami-Dade, records show.
Martinez got away, but not for long, according to a police arrest report released on Thursday. With the help of a specialized team with the Broward Sheriff’s Office, Miami-Dade detectives arrested Martinez 12 days later on Wednesday in Broward County, records show.
During the police pursuit, Martinez was speeding on State Road 826 in a black GMC truck with a tag that belonged to a silver Mercedez-Benz, according to police. After speeding on Kendall Drive, he and a woman jumped out of the truck in Kendall and vanished, according to an arrest report in the case.
But Martinez left behind several clues, including a tool order with his name on it that had a Broward address where detectives found him on Wednesday with the same black GMC truck, which now had a Virginia license plate, according to the arrest report.
Correctional officers booked Martinez at about 5:45 p.m., on Wednesday, at TGK. Investigators had already arrested and identified him as the Instagram user behind the “Loyalty_Ova_RoyaltyCC” an account that had nearly 17,000 followers with a “Miami Runs on Loyalty. Welcome to Deathrow. Miami Crew” bio.
The investigators accused Martinez of using the account to organize illegal meetings at “The Pit,” a public intersection — including one that resulted in injuries to both innocent bystanders and law enforcement personnel on June 6, 2022, according to MDPD records.
In one open case, Martinez is facing nine counts of aggravated inciting a riot, a second-degree felony; and nine counts of obstructing a highway, a first-degree misdemeanor. Records show he also had a warrant case for reckless driving.
Investigators with MDPD’s Homeland Security Bureau have been working to put an end to the illegal intersection takeovers that have damaged roadways, traffic light poles, and marked police cars, according to a police arrest report in one of Martinez’s cases.