Date of Offense
Offense(s)
Official Statement
Chief Sergio Velazquez, who served as Hialeah’s Police Chief from 2012 until his suspension in late 2021, was arrested on June 2, 2025, on multiple first-degree felony charges—including structuring transactions, organized fraud, grand theft, and money laundering—after an extensive investigation uncovered serious financial misconduct. The probe revealed that between May and October 2021 alone, approximately $560,000 in department "petty cash" and seized funds went missing. Additionally, from 2015 through 2021, roughly $2.8 million allocated to narcotics investigations and about $1 million in court-ordered civil-forfeiture funds were unaccounted for.
Investigators identified a systematic pattern in which Velazquez made numerous cash deposits into multiple personal and business bank accounts, deliberately structured to stay under the $10,000 federal reporting threshold. In one instance, 153 deposits totaling over $293,000 were traced, with approximately $265,000 used to pay personal debts such as credit cards. Analysts also discovered more than 60 deposits totaling over $140,000 across his accounts.
Further disclosures revealed that Velazquez used illicit funds to support an extravagant personal lifestyle, spending over $300,000 on Rolex watches and making additional luxury purchases at Cartier, Louis Vuitton, and Versace. All suspected deposit activity abruptly ceased following his suspension in October 2021.
Velazquez pled not guilty, and his bond was set at $30,000. As this matter involves allegations of serious financial dishonesty and manipulation of public trust at the highest level of law enforcement, his inclusion on the Brady List is clearly warranted.
