Stolen credit card prompts roommate’s kidnapping in Miami-Dade, police say

MIAMI – A recent dispute among roommates over a stolen credit card prompted a confrontation that devolved into arrests for kidnapping and drug possession in Miami-Dade County, according to police.

Cristina Arrojo, Marcelo Asenjo Garcia, and Amir Dalit Akbarnia were roommates at a house in Miami-Dade’s University Park neighborhood near Florida International University, according to police.

“[Akbarnia] received a call,” Detective Alvaro Zabaleta, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade Police Department, wrote in a statement released on Friday.

Arrojo asked Akbarnia where he was on Thursday and he told her he was at the Walmart Supercenter, at 9191 W. Flagler St., in the Fontainebleau area, so she offered him a ride, according to police.

Akbarnia and Nigel Burkes met Arrojo and Asenjo Garcia, 52, who were in a rental U-Haul moving truck in the parking lot of the Walmart, according to police.

“During the conversation with [Arrojo], [Asejo Garcia] assaulted [Akbarnia] and forced him into a rental box truck,” Zabaleta wrote in a statement.

Burkes, 35, told police that he willingly left with them in the U-Haul truck. To recover the stolen credit card, the four ended up at Akbarnia’s father’s house in the Fontainebleau area, and when no one was home, they left, according to the arrest report.

Asejo Garcia struck Akbarnia several times during the ride and pulled over at the McDonald’s along West Flagler Street near Southwest 107 Avenue, in Sweetwater, where Akbarnia walked to the restroom — and asked a restaurant employee to call the police, according to the arrest report.

“The employee called 911,” Zabaleta wrote.  

Akbarnia was holding his cell phone when Arrojo snatched it — and bit him during a struggle to take his wallet — according to the arrest report. Arrojo left the restaurant with Burkes and Asejo Garcia. Officers with the Sweetwater Police Department searched for them.

Police officers found them at Southwest Sixth Street and 97 Avenue and arrested them, according to the arrest report. During the investigation, they considered Burkes a witness to the kidnapping but arrested him because they found him in possession of crystal meth.

During questioning, Arrojo “admitted to responding to Walmart” to pick up Akbarnia and Burkes, but she denied taking him by force, according to the arrest form.

Miami-Dade correctional officers booked Arrojo shortly after 2:10 a.m., on Friday, at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, county inmate records show.