MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – After police officers arrested a man who was wanted for stealing rental cars, he told detectives that the brain behind the over half a million dollars in crimes in Miami-Dade County was a woman, records show.
Israel Smith was on the run for over a year before police officers found him on Monday at a house in Miami-Dade’s Palmetto Estates neighborhood, according to an arrest report in the case.
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After his arrest near the corner of Southwest 166 Street and 99 Court on Monday, Smith signed a statement blaming Anseca Calix for crimes and claiming he didn’t know what she was up to.
The thefts in 2022 of over $550,000 in cars belonging to the Avis Budget Group were on Sept. 18, Sept. 24, Oct. 14, Oct. 17, and Nov. 20, at the Miami International Airport’s rental car center, according to police.
Herby Smithlordeus had already accused Calix, his friend from high school, of renting him a car that he didn’t know had been stolen for $150 per day on Nov. 7, 2022, in Margate, according to police.
Smith avoided arrest while driving a stolen 2022 Dodge Charger when police officers stopped him on Nov. 28, 2022, in Tampa, according to the arrest report. On Monday, after his arrest, he told police officers that he didn’t know the car was stolen, records show.
During their investigation, Miami-Dade detectives reviewed surveillance video at the rental car center and cell phone data and concluded Smith and Calix were working together with SKU numbers. They also talked to a security guard who told them he was a victim of intimidation and recognized Smith.
Smith was facing charges in six cases and he remained at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on Tuesday awaiting a hearing, so authorities could verify the source of the funds used for bail.
Smith is facing six counts of grand theft, six counts of organized scheme to defraud, and one count of trespassing, inmate records show.
Police officers arrested Calix on Nov. 11, 2022, and re-arrested her on Dec. 12, 2022. Prosecutors filed a case against her on Nov. 16, 2022, four cases on Dec. 13, 2022, and Dec. 21, 2022. Four cases closed on Feb. 3, 2023, and two cases remained open Tuesday.
Calix’s pending case, filed on Nov. 11, 2022, is for five counts of grand theft and one count of an organized scheme to defraud. Her second pending case, filed on Dec. 21, 2022, is for failure to redeliver a hired vehicle, a third-degree felony.
The next trial hearing for both of Calix’s cases is set for March 18. Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Milton Hirsch is presiding over both.