PALM SPRINGS FL May 10 2020 — Manuel Aguiar-Santana, authorities allege, had mules shoplift goods that he either fenced locally or shipped to his native Cuba. His arrest came, they said, after they caught and “turned” one of his helpers.

Aguiar-Santana, 46, charged with dealing stolen property, was booked Thursday at the Palm Beach County Jail with his bail set at $15,000. He remained jailed early Friday.

According to a Palm Springs police report, a search of Aguiar-Santana’s home uncovered 10 large garbage bags of razor cartridges, one bag of female hygiene products, two chest freezers packed with meat, and numerous containers of laundry detergent.

Lantana police had caught a man shoplifting Sunday at the Costco near Interstate 95 and also tied him to an April 28 theft there, the Palm Springs report said.

The man said he was a drug addict and homeless and had met a man named “Manny” who worked at a suburban West Palm Beach barber shop in the strip center where the man hung out.

For four months, he said, Manny would drive him to big box retailers — Publix, Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe’s and others — and wait in the parking lot as he pilfered clothes, razors, meat and other items.

The coronavirus pandemic blocked Manny’s shipments to Cuba and inventory piled up in his home, the informant told investigators.

They tracked Aguilar through a Costco membership card the man had and tailed him Wednesday to the barber shop, which The Palm Beach Post is not naming. There, two men directed the informant to get them meat and razors.

Police bought about $150 worth of items and gave them to the informant, who gave them to Aguiar at the barber shop in exchange for $30.

One of those items was a package of Tide laundry detergent pods, into which police placed a tracking device. The device led them to Aguiar’s home on Santa Anna Drive, where they arrested him and found the bags of stolen goods.

Calls to telephone numbers for Aguiar and the barber shop went unanswered Thursday.

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