Man arrested for posing as Miami Springs pizzeria owner and delivering disgusting pizzas, police say

MIAMI SPRINGS, Florida. – A 55-year-old man in South Florida faces charges related to a bizarre identity fraud scheme that disadvantaged pizza customers, authorities said.

According to police, he carried out “an elaborate plan to defraud tourists staying at Miami Springs hotels” by posing as a well-known local pizzeria.

According to police, customers who thought they were ordering pizzas from Roman's Pizzeria, 391 N. Royal Poinciana Blvd., instead received inferior slices from Jose Marti-Alvarez.

According to Miami Springs police, Marti-Alvarez distributed “fake pizza flyers in hotel rooms” along Northwest 36th Street, near Miami International Airport, labeled “Roman Pizzeria,” misleading visitors.

Jesus Roman, the owner of the real Roman's Pizzeria, who has been making pizzas for four decades, said Marti-Alvarez's pizzas were “bad, uncooked, sometimes they were shipped in a box with a piece of raw dough.”

“You just give it to them and by the time they notice, they're gone anyway,” Roman said.

According to police, the scam had been going on for “several years” and had caused the real Roman's “significant difficulties, including complaints to the Better Business Bureau, negative reviews and angry customers.”

“Sometimes they come to the store angry and ask, 'Where's the food?'” says Roman. “We have to explain to them that it's not us.”

After Roman went to the police, officers arrested Marti-Alvarez on charges of organized fraud and took him to jail early Monday morning.

“If you do something, at least do it right,” Roman said.

Marti-Alvarez will also be charged with aggravated assault “after he fled from hotel staff in his vehicle and hit an employee with the vehicle,” police said.

In court Monday afternoon, Miami-Dade Judge Mindy Glazer ordered Marti-Alvarez to stay away from the Days Inn at 4767 NW 36th Street, where the victim works.

In open court, a lawyer seeking to dismiss the aggravated assault charge read from a police report in which he said he told officers he “quickly left the area and did not believe he had hit them with his car because he understood he was not supposed to be handing out pizza flyers in the hotel.”

Nevertheless, Glazer saw sufficient suspicion and convicted Marti-Alvarez of aggravated assault, after which he set bail at $5,000.

His bail for the organized fraud attempt was listed as “to be determined” in prison records.

Marti-Alvarez had been held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center since Monday evening, according to online records.