Illegal Mexicans on rampage
Three men went on a rampage. It involved guns, money and sexualviolence. It lasted at least seven weeks, stretching from downtown St.Petersburg to Apollo Beach.
The authorities got together Thursday and said they had put a stop to it. Three suspects were in jail.
St. Petersburg police intend to file more charges against thethree today in connection with a rape and robbery of a downtownrestaurant.
The suspects are Mexicans who live in eastern HillsboroughCounty. One is a strapping 13-year-old with a Latin gang tattoo on hisleft cheek. The man described as the ringleader is an illegal immigrantwho was arrested here at least twice before and set free without beingdeported.
The crimes accumulated quietly, with little media attention at first, insulated from each other by time and distance.
Their full extent is not yet known, but it appeared Thursdaythat the first in the rampage took place in the small hours of July 3,near the shore of Hillsborough Bay in Gibsonton, when the men burstinto a home, holding guns and duct tape.
A married couple lived there, according to Hillsboroughsheriff’s Col. Gary Terry. The men tied up the husband and found thewife in the shower, and one of them raped her three different ways.Then they made off with computers worth around $3,000. Authorities saythe rapist left a fingerprint on the outer doorknob, but it did notimmediately lead to an arrest.
Sixteen nights later in Apollo Beach, two 17-year-old girlswere walking on U.S. 41 when a Hispanic man in a dark SUV offered thema ride.