Photo: Miami-Dade Police Department | Facebook
More than twenty cars at the bottom of a lake in Florida. That is what someone found while diving and called the police. The authorities had to fish them out of the water and find out how they ended up down there.
How so many cars ended up in the water and how long they stayed there is still a mystery today. A team made up of members of the Special Patrol Bureau, divers, and police officers from the Doral Police Department carried out the odd recovery mission. They had received information about several cars submerged in a lake located in an industrial park in Doral, west of Miami, from a diver.
Divers from the rescue team put red markers in the lake for eight more cars and will struggle to take them out. But they believe there might be many more that have spent at least two decades under the water. 20 or 30 are the numbers that they estimate, and they will need several days to complete the extraction. Among them, an Acura Legend Coupe, stolen around 2002, according to the Doral Police Department Chief, Edwin Lopez.
A six-generation Cadillac De Ville, which had been stolen in the late 1980s, was also found at the bottom of the lake. And so was a 2022 Nissan Altima, also around two decades ago. Further investigation will be added to the cases that remained open over the years, Doral Mayor Christi Fraga stated.
The rescue team used several flotation devices and rope to tie the vehicles under the water and pulled them to the shore with the help of a crane. They came out covered in rust, mud, and algae. For the moment, homicide detectives are unable to link the cars to any of the crimes from the 1990s that happened in the area. But checking the VINs of the models found submerged might help them put two and two together.
"It will be very interesting to see how many unsolved crimes will now be able to be closed out because of now the recovery of these individual vehicles," said attorney and former FBI agent Stuart Kaplan.
"It seems that this area was a hot spot when none of this was developed, where cars were driven into the lakes," Doral Mayor added. First, police have to find out where the cars came from, who put them there, and how much time they spent under the water.
Authorities are now considering searching for submerged cars in other lakes in the Doral area in Florida as well. But first, they have to pull out all found in the Doral lake.
New York Times reports that some of the cars found in the lake could be linked to an international feud taking place in the 1970s and 1980s between Colombian drug cartels and the United States government.
Divers from the rescue team put red markers in the lake for eight more cars and will struggle to take them out. But they believe there might be many more that have spent at least two decades under the water. 20 or 30 are the numbers that they estimate, and they will need several days to complete the extraction. Among them, an Acura Legend Coupe, stolen around 2002, according to the Doral Police Department Chief, Edwin Lopez.
A six-generation Cadillac De Ville, which had been stolen in the late 1980s, was also found at the bottom of the lake. And so was a 2022 Nissan Altima, also around two decades ago. Further investigation will be added to the cases that remained open over the years, Doral Mayor Christi Fraga stated.
The rescue team used several flotation devices and rope to tie the vehicles under the water and pulled them to the shore with the help of a crane. They came out covered in rust, mud, and algae. For the moment, homicide detectives are unable to link the cars to any of the crimes from the 1990s that happened in the area. But checking the VINs of the models found submerged might help them put two and two together.
"It will be very interesting to see how many unsolved crimes will now be able to be closed out because of now the recovery of these individual vehicles," said attorney and former FBI agent Stuart Kaplan.
"It seems that this area was a hot spot when none of this was developed, where cars were driven into the lakes," Doral Mayor added. First, police have to find out where the cars came from, who put them there, and how much time they spent under the water.
Authorities are now considering searching for submerged cars in other lakes in the Doral area in Florida as well. But first, they have to pull out all found in the Doral lake.
New York Times reports that some of the cars found in the lake could be linked to an international feud taking place in the 1970s and 1980s between Colombian drug cartels and the United States government.
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