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Photo: Hialeah Cops Arrested
Hialeah Officers Armando Perez, right, and Ernesto Arias-Martinez, left, surrendered to law enforcement on Wednesday in Miami-Dade County. (MDPD)

“When police officers create false traffic tickets, as we are alleging happened here, they damage the reputation of their own department and the reputations of every police officer working to serve our Miami-Dade community,”

State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle

Who is Martcello Strovanov? Officer Ernesto Arias-Martinez reported Strovanov, who was born on Aug. 23, 1969, was driving a 2014 Ford truck with Florida tag 352TJX in Hialeah, records show.

Aurelio Echevarria, the registered owner of the truck, told officers he didn’t know Strovanov. According to Detective Paulina Whitney, Arias-Martinez issued Strovanov five citations on Feb. 21, 2020.

After an investigation stemming from similar incongruencies in traffic cases, Whitney reported the truck exists, but Strovanov doesn’t. Arias-Martinez is accused of writing fiction.

“There are no identities under that name.”

According to Hialeah Police Chief Sergio Velázquez, two of his officers, Arias-Martinez and Armando Perez, who both serve as traffic motormen in Hialeah, surrendered on Wednesday.

Arias-Martinez, 23, and Perez, 40, are facing criminal charges in Miami-Dade County for allegedly writing false tickets, according to Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle,

Fernandez Rundle released a statement saying the police department deserves credit for working diligently to uncover and correct the actions.

This story was written by Andrea Torres courtesy of Local 10 (WPLG).

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