TAMPA, Fla. — For more than a year—our I-Team has tracked a huge mess in Hillsborough County --- with tons of construction debris piling up at two unlicensed landfills.
Maximo Sanchez was the businessman behind him, who authorities warned time and time again to clean up his act.
But records show the dumping continued, and people near the landfills reached out to the I-Team for help.
WATCH Adam Walser's full report here:
“He’s a guy who doesn’t play by the rules and thinks rules don’t apply to him,” said Aaron Truman, who owns a flooring business next to Sanchez’s property on Linebaugh Avenue.
This month, Sanchez was supposed to be tried on criminal charges, but a last-minute deal in a pre-trial hearing enabled him to avoid possible time behind bars.
Sanchez appears in court on felony and misdemeanor charges
Maximo Sanchez and his attorney smiled, smirked and glared at our camera during a court hearing Wednesday afternoon.
The last time the I-Team came face to face with Sanchez was in March, 2024, when we found him in front of his business office in Drew Park.
“You’re not authorized to record me. You can record my attorney. So shut that off please,” he said when we encountered him on a public street near his office.
We asked him about unpermitted dumps Sanchez operates on Hartford Street and Linebaugh Avenue, where we observed trucks dumping debris.
Sanchez had already received multiple cleanup notices from the state by that time.
“It’s all being dealt with, and as I said I'm not giving any statement. You talk to my attorney,” Sanchez said during that encounter.
Sanchez signed a consent order with the county last March in which he agreed to clean up the Hartford Street site.
But 15 months later, the mounds of debris had grown.
The state conducted multiple inspections and took dozens of photos documenting continued violations.
The Hillsborough County Enviornmental Protection Commission sent Sanchez a letter on May 8th, saying he missed the November 30th deadline to bring the property into compliance with environmental regulations.
The letter says Sanchez also owes a $7,900 fine.
Sierra Club member Walter Smith, II., who owns an environmental engineering firm, says that history of non-compliance is inexcusable.
“I would have thought that they would have nipped this in the bud a long time ago. There appears to be a consistent pattern of defiance,” Smith said.
He said he believes the government needs more teeth in how agencies address situations like the ones Sanchez created on the two sites.
At Wednesday’s court hearing, Sanchez faced charges of felony littering, a third-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison in Florida.
Sanchez was also charged with a misdemeanor violation of Florida environmental law, a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to one year of incarceration.
Prosecutor agrees to give Sanchez a second pre-trial intervention deal
Instead, his defense attorney announced to the judge that the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office agreed to Pretrial Intervention, or PTI, which is a diversion program only available to certain first-time felony offenders.
As special conditions of the agreement, Sanchez agreed to bring both properties into compliance with Department of Environmental Protection rules and serve 25 hours of community service.
It wasn’t the first time Sanchez got a pre-trial diversion deal.
In 2021, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection cited him for improper storage, disposal and processing of solid waste and storage of waste tires at an unpermitted facility at the Linebaugh site.
Prosecutors allowed Sanchez to enter a misdemeanor diversion program and dismissed the case in 2022.
Aaron Truman,who owns the flooring business on Linebaugh Ave., says Sanchez's property only got worse after that.
“It’s just not right”
“Piles got bigger. Just got worse. Still don’t have sprinklers running the way they’re supposed to run when he’s open,” he said.
Truman says dump trucks hauling waste to the landfill regularly stir up dust and dirt, covering work trucks and damaging his air conditioning system and carpeting.
“Bunch of crap. He needed more than that,” Truman said. “It’s obvious that he’s been told before to clean up his properties. He does not do it. And here he is in another intervention program, and it’s just not right.”
As Sanchez left court, we asked him if he would actually clean up both sites.
Neither he nor his attorney had anything to say.
“It’s just a travesty that all he got was a slap on the wrist,” Truman said. “He’s just a man that does what he wants when he wants that doesn’t play by the rules at all.”
Sanchez is still facing two civil cases filed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Those cases are expected to go to trial later this year.
While we were at the Linebaugh Ave. dump Thursday, we observed a truck hauling debris drive onto the site, then drive away when the driver saw our camera.
A Hillsborough County EPC inspector also visited the site to monitor activities.
Hillsborough County crews work six days a week to improve stormwater drainage
The ongoing restoration work is part of a larger effort by Hillsborough County Public Works aimed at mitigating flooding risks throughout the area. Officials are hopeful that these improvements will provide a sense of safety during this hurricane season.
