SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. — The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office has charged seven south Florida residents, including an employee of the Florida Department of Children and Family Services, in connection with a data breach that compromised the identities of more than an estimated 2,000 Florida residents. 

The investigation started with a local retail theft case and evolved into a full scale investigation involving multiple law enforcement agencies at the local, state, and federal level.  The Sarasota Sheriff's Office described the case as peeling back the layers of an onion — it just got deeper and deeper, with more and more victims. 

Sarasota detectives began the initial investigation in May of this year after being contacted by a retailer in the University Town Center area about suspected fraudulent activity.  The investigation found that Miami residents, Roxana Ruiz, 39, and Eduardo Lamigueiro, 43, were using fake ID's that had personal information from victims to open credit card accounts and purchase more than $6,000 in merchandise.  They face charges of fraud, grand theft, and criminal use of personal identification. 

As the investigation unraveled, detectives traced those fake ID's back to 48-year-old Bertanicy Garcia, an employee with DCF.  Authorities said Garcia used the DCF database to get the addresses, names, and social security numbers of the victims.  Since her arrest, she has been fired from DCF. 

Five people have been arreted so far — Bertanicy Garcia, Jose Perez, Nelson Cobo-Hernandez, Junior Perodin Verges, and Marcos Cobo-Gonzalez.  Law enforcement is searching for Lamigueiro and Ruiz, who were both last seen in the Orlando area.