OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — The Ottawa County Sheriff's Office is investigating a series of mail thefts believed to be part of a larger criminal operation.
Police arrested a suspect believed to be connected to 10 different incidents of mail theft since late October.
29-year-old Alex Castillo, of Grand Rapids, was taken into custody after he attempted to cash a fraudulent check at two different locations between Nov. 1 and Nov. 2. He was arraigned Thursday.
Police made the arrest after identifying a suspect vehicle in a mail theft incident on Oct. 31 at a business in the 3400 block of 76th Avenue in Zeeland Township.
At this time, his possible involvement into a larger criminal operation remains under investigation, as does the origin of the fraudulent check he was attempting to cash.
"Somebody who's in charge of the operation or a ringleader, I will say, will enlist other people that will go and actually do the cash checking for them, so that if someone gets caught, it's the person trying to pass the bad check and not the actual person stealing them," said Captain Jacob Sparks with the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office. "So I think it's an organized situation that we're looking into. And I think that there's probably multiple groups of people doing this."
Castillo's arrest comes as the sheriff's office has been investigating approximately 10 separate larcenies involving dozens of pieces of mail in Zeeland and Georgetown Townships from Oct. 27 through Oct. 31.
Police say the increase of business mailbox larcenies began in August of 2022. Since then the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office has been in contact with neighboring police agencies, the United States Postal Inspector Service, the FBI and the IRS.
Investigation showed that these checks have been cashed throughout the state and even as far as Arizona and Colorado. Police say the amount stolen in this string of larcenies has totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars, impacting multiple victims.
Police are encouraging the public to avoid leaving their mail in mailboxes for extended periods of time or over the weekend, be mindful of strange vehicles attempting to access business mailboxes and refrain from mailing checks with large dollar amounts.
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