For Immediate Release
August 15, 2019
SEBRING, Fla. – Agents with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested three of four suspects charged with stealing 16 four-wheel-drive trucks throughout Highlands, Glades, Okeechobee and Polk counties from 2016 to 2018. FDLE began its investigation in 2018.
Investigators say the theft ring stole trucks totaling more than $300,000 in value for the purpose of trading them to a drug trafficking organization in Highlands County for methamphetamine drugs. The suspects were planning to use the drugs for their personal use.
Over the course of several months, FDLE agents arrested three suspects charged with stealing the trucks, but suspect Aubrey Lynn Waldron remains at large. Agents believe Waldron is still in the Okeechobee area.
If you have information about the whereabouts of Aubrey Lynn Waldron, please contact FDLE at 1-800-342-0820 or Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office at 863-763-3117.
Aubrey Lynn Waldron, 37, 7920 NW 82nd Ct., Okeechobee, Fla.
Charges – Conspiracy to commit grand theft, grand theft, possession of ammunition by a convicted felon, possession of drug paraphernalia, forging a check, uttering a forged check.
Three additional suspects are in custody.
Ethan King, 24, 2461 NE 6th Street, Okeechobee, Fla.
Charges - Conspiracy to commit grand theft, grand theft, grand theft of a firearm, burglary of a conveyance, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, dealing in stolen property.
Andrew Wheeler, 23, 2730 Hwy. 441 SE #5, Okeechobee, Fla.
Charges - Conspiracy to commit grand theft, grand theft.
James Janata, 38, 1136 Lake Drive West, Okeechobee, Fla.
Charges – Dealing in stolen property.
FDLE was assisted in this case by Highlands, Okeechobee and Glades sheriff’s offices and Seminole Tribe Police Department.
The case will be prosecuted by Attorney General Ashley Moody’s Office of Statewide Prosecution.
In conjunction with this case, Highlands County Sheriff’s Office arrested four additional suspects accused of running a drug trafficking organization in Highlands County.
For further information:
FDLE Press Office
Gretl Plessinger, Jessica Cary, Jeremy Burns
(850) 410-7001