Newsletter signup

Police and fire

  • 4 escape fire tied to stove on north end
    Food left cooking unattended on a stove started a small fire Tuesday afternoon at a house on Fort Wayne’s north side, the city fire department said.Shortly after 2 p.m.
  • City police absolved in deadly shooting
    Three months after Fort Wayne police fatally shot Kenneth Knight inside a south-side home, Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards declared the shooting justified.
  • Extra patrols target drunken drivers, boaters
    The Indiana State Police and conservation officers announced Tuesday they will have many extra patrols this summer, targeting drivers and boat operators.
Advertisement

Northeast Indiana time-share scam tracked to Florida

Cordero

A Florida man is in jail on drug charges, accused of scamming a northeast Indiana woman over a time-share property.

Officers from the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department and Florida law enforcement agencies raided the home of Derick Cordero, 32, on Thursday, the sheriff’s department said in a written statement issued Tuesday.

It said that police were watching Cordero’s house after the northeast Indiana department contacted the Florida Department of Law Enforcement about a Nappanee-area woman who reported that she paid more than $4,000 in fraudulent closing fees for a time-share property in Kissimmee, Fla.

The sheriff’s department said the payment went to a mailbox in Beverly Hills, Calif., and then was forwarded to Orlando, where subpoenaed records revealed Cordero's signature on the cashed check.

Undercover officers reported that Cordero sold drugs out of his home during the surveillance, so about 30 officers raided his home Thursday afternoon. About $30,000 in pre-packaged marijuana was found, the sheriff’s department said, and Cordero was preliminarily charged in Orange County with felony possession of cannabis with intent to sell or deliver.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office Cyber Crimes Unit also seized documents, computers and cellular devices owned by Cordero for further analysis, the northeast Indiana department said.

Cordero has an active felony warrant for theft/fraud issued out of Kosciusko County. His bond was set at $10,000. Cordero remains in custody in Florida.

Advertisement