FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is looking for two men who ran away before going on trial in the theft of over $761,000 from more than 680 churches nationwide.
Marius Dumitru, 30, and Marius “Viorel” Dumitru, 37, were arrested in 2021 during “Operation Thou Shall Not Steal.” They were members of a group of six Romanian nationals accused of traveling to churches and stealing donation checks from their mailboxes in an Orlando-based theft ring, according to FDLE.
The six would travel around Florida and throughout the country, sometimes to as many as 85 churches in a single day, using a variety of aliases to deposit the stolen checks into multiple bank accounts and withdrawing the money from ATMs before banks could notice discrepancies, investigators said. With the cash in hand, it would then be used to purchase vehicles, food and clothing, as well as be wired in large amounts back to Romania, according to the department.
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All four of the suspects’ other co-conspirators — Catalin Trandafir, 48; Simona Trandafir, 43; Panait Dumitru, 35; and Ionut Raducan, 36 — have since been convicted, FDLE said.
The department now seeks the public’s help in tracking down Marius Dumitru and Marius “Viorel” Dumitru, who were both last known to be in the Orlando area.
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Anyone with information about the suspects’ whereabouts is urged to contact FDLE Fort Myers at 239-278-7170.
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