A Miami family that was allegedly known locally for popular though illegal cockfights were all sentenced to jail time after being convicted of ID theft, creating counterfeit checks, and bank fraud in a national scheme built inside the hiding places of the Dark Web.

When the Miami police raided the family home after hearing about illegal cockfights, they discovered much more than they expected: suspicious-looking checks, a laptop, and disposable cellphones.

As a result, three members of the Rodriguez family, including a father, tech-savvy son, and daughter, have all received jail time. Family associates of the Rodriguez’ were also found guilty and sentenced to prison time.

This week in court, the patriarch of the family, Carlos Miguel Rodriguez Sr., aka “Il Padrino,” aka “The Godfather”, was sentenced to almost eleven years in prison. Rodriguez Sr. previously entered a guilty plea in January 2020 for one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

In a release, the FBI said the scam was born after Rodriguez Sr. was offered a high-end new motorboat for a computer program that could collect social security numbers and create counterfeit checks. The family utilized illegal methods to secure private bank account information from across the country by using the Dark Web.

The Dark Web is a hidden group of internet sites hosted on “Tor,” a particular web browser that is not connected to the mainstream internet. It is used for totally private, anonymous activities and is often linked to numerous illegal applications, including terrorism, pedophile activities, and more.

Rodriguez Sr. was charged with working with his two adult children and three family friends in a national counterfeit check-cashing scam based upon the theft of stranger’s identities. Their $2 million check-cashing scheme stole names, social security numbers, and other personal data of victims, who were unaware of the identity theft and bank fraud.

Rodriguez Sr.’s two adult children received prison sentences for participating in the fraud scheme. His son, former computer science student Carlos Miguel Rodriguez Jr., 25, will serve more than fifty-two months in prison and his daughter, Taily Rodriguez, 27, was sentenced to twenty-four months in jail.

Other associates receiving prison time include Kenny Alfaro, sentenced to forty-six months in jail; Raul Alpizar Gonzalez, sentenced to 52 months imprisonment and Maipu Fonseca, with credit for time served.

The Rodriguez family was ordered to pay back $1.8 million to the victims and forfeit numerous properties such as Mercedes-Benz vehicles, their home in Miami, and the high-end Midnight Express 400-horsepower boat.

A US Attorney press release reports the father and daughter used the Dark Web to illegally purchase personal information such as names, addresses, birth dates, and social security numbers of unaware bank customers.

Special Assistant US Attorney Elizabeth Young said that once the data was procured, Rodriguez Jr. hacked into victims’ bank accounts, editing the contact information and phone numbers to control the accounts. Rodriguez Jr. also downloaded checks already signed by the unaware account holders so his family could use them for counterfeit checks.

In a US Attorney statement, the scheme was described as a hand-off scam with numerous actors.

“Once the counterfeit checks were ready, Rodriguez Sr. would give them to other co-conspirators, tasking them with finding people who would visit the banks to cash the checks,” the statement said. “Sometimes, Rodriguez Sr. recruited the check cashers himself, using people living on the street or in homeless shelters.”

Prosecutors said that after crossing state lines, the associates visited banks in South Florida, California, Texas, and Utah to cash the counterfeit checks. Then, prosecutors added, Rodriguez Sr. deposited the cash proceeds in “different bank accounts to disguise the source of the money.”