Florida Cop Targeted Latinos, Robbed Them

Lantana, Florida police officer Mark Ott has spent much of this year targeting Latinos in his community, pulling them over as they left check cashing stores for no reason, then stealing their money.

He’d done it multiple times without any problem — until he pulled this stunt with an FBI agent. The man then reported the incident and a sting was set up, as The Palm Beach Post reported:

The agent reported the incident to a detective of the Public Integrity Unit Task Force at the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office.

That lead to a joint investigation with the FBI, who conducted an undercover operation on Wednesday, where a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office agent acted as the driver and an “FBI source” acted as a passenger.

Ott stole between $35 and $400 from his victims and has been charged with three counts of evidencing prejudice while committing a robbery. Ott is 35 years old. The news report below goes on to say that the men Ott targeted tended not to speak English or not have driver’s licenses, which pretty much means he was racially profiling them because he thought he could get away with it. At least this guy got caught, he messed with the wrong FBI agent…

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD