Ex-sen. Frank Artiles’ house raided the search for a candidate

PALMETTO BAY, Fla. – A search warrant was carried out Wednesday morning at the home of the former Florida Sen. Frank Artiles as part of the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office investigation into whether he was illegally funding a planted candidate in the November election.

Sources say the warrant involves a search of his electronics, including his cell phone and computer, and the contents of a safe at Artiles’ home in Palmetto Bay.

Investigators are looking for evidence of Artiles’ possible communication with Alex Rodriguez, a shill candidate in the District 37 Florida Senate race, and whether there is evidence that Artiles illegally paid and paid the bogus candidate.

News of the robbery, first reported by Local 10 News, fell like a bombshell in Tallahassee.

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Rodriguez, a third-party candidate in that race, has the same last name as Democratic incumbent Jose Javier Rodriguez, who narrowly lost to Republican challenger Ileana Garcia.

A Local 10 News investigation shortly after the election found that Alex Rodriguez, a deeply indebted machinery representative in Boca Raton, had forged his address on his campaign form and that he was not raising money or campaigning for the position he was in. vote for. He also lied to Local 10 News in November when we asked him to explain his curious no-show, no-party campaign, and suspicious campaign funding.

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Controlling a mock candidate isn’t illegal, but funding it is.

Prosecutors have been working on the case for months, following the money and communication between Artiles and Alex Rodriguez.

They may have been affected by their digital footprints. Rodriguez kept his apparent supervisor Artiles informed of his progress as a candidate.

And sudden changes to his campaign donor list can be traced back to Artiles’ IP address.

Artiles, now a lobbyist, resigned from his Senate seat in 2017 after using a racist slur among colleagues and amid reports that a former Hooters calendar girl and Playboy model with no political experience had been hired as “ consultants. ” .

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The raid on Artiles’s house ended before noon, and the former senator was seen in the house along with his lawyer.

Neither had a comment on Wednesday.

Garcia won the race in District 37 by just 32 votes over Jose Javier Rodriguez. Shill candidate Alex Rodriguez received more than 6,000 votes.

There is no indication that Garcia was involved or had any knowledge of the shill being planted in the race.