Authorities are looking for two criminals who are stealing used cooking oil from restaurants in Little Havana, oil that they are allegedly manipulating and adding chemicals for resale.
The owner of “Orgullo catracho”, a restaurant located in Little Havana in Miami, reported to the police the theft of used oil from a warehouse located near his establishment. A phenomenon that apparently is not exclusive to that one restaurant in the area.
“We are not having the same amount of oil recycling that we normally have,” explained the store manager, Lester Mairena, in statements to journalist Javier Díaz for Univision.
The administrator showed the warehouse where they place the waste oil so that a registered company can take it and process it into renewable biofuel and explained that when they reviewed the security cameras they found that the company in charge of taking the oil was not the one that was doing the work, but other people, at dawn and without permission.
“People who have no scruples. You are doing something that is not right. You are stealing, you are polluting. That is harmful for human consumption. “Actually, they have their tricks.”added the interviewee, who explained that they put chemicals in the oil to resell it.
As far as consumers are concerned, they would have to have a very fine palate to determine whether that oil is reused or not, but What is a reality is that it is a very harmful procedure for health, since this oil is no longer suitable for human consumption.
The owner of “Orgullo catracho” made the report to the police and hopes that the thieves seen in the security camera video will be arrested.
The advice to small businesses is not to try to buy oil from outside.
Despite being an unusual type of robbery, it is not the first event of its kind in recent months.
In July of last year two Cubans were arrested after stealing about 300 gallons of used cooking oil for an approximate value of $1,290, which was stolen from a storage tank at a restaurant in the Florida Keys, specifically in Marathon, as reported at the time by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
In that case Reynier Rivero González, 36 years old and resident of Hialeah; and Yadriel Luis Zaragoza, 24, of Miami, were arrested and charged with grand theft after the sheriff’s office received a call about two men in an unmarked pickup truck pumping oil from a tank at a restaurant.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection regulates more than 200 registered used oil handlers. Recycling companies turn used cooking oil into animal feed, biofuels, industrial lubricants and even detergents.
