MIAMI (WSVN) - Police have arrested a former University of Miami football player for allegedly operating a personal watercraft rental business out of Watson Island illegally.
7News cameras captured Adewale Ojomo as he sat in the back seat of a Miami-Dade Police cruiser, late Tuesday afternoon.
According to a statement by Miami-Dade Police Detective Argemis Colome, Ojomo “continues to run his Jet Ski business illegally.”
From inside the vehicle where he sat handcuffed, Ojomo denied the allegations. “If you check the records, I’m a registered company with SunBiz,” he said. “I have insurance, I have business licenses with Miami-Dade, also with City of Miami.”
But in the police statement, Colome said Ojomo “had been given civil citations previously, as well as a PTA arrest (promise to appear), and he continued to ignore our efforts of telling him that he is running the business illegally.”
Ojomo, a former Hurricanes and NFL defensive end, insisted he didn’t break the law. “The citizens, they don’t want us to get into the business, the newcomers,” he said. “They want to keep us from making a living.”
Police seized and towed away four Yamaha WaveRunners from Ojomo’s business.
Tuesday night, 7News cameras captured police taking Ojomo into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in West Miami-Dade.
Police stressed the arrest has nothing to do with Monday’s fatal personal watercraft crash near Star Island. Two people were injured after, police said, their personal watercraft crashed into a concrete archway on Bridge Road Causeway, just north of the MacArthur Causeway, at around 5:30 p.m.
Paramedics took the victims to the hospital, but they did not survive. Officials identified them as 34-year-old Sabrina Daniels and 30-year-old Julio Montero.
Even though authorities said Monday’s accident is unrelated to Ojomo’s arrest, other rental operators said it’s an important reminder about safety.
“That’s the main issue here. People aren’t being educated properly, so they’re going out and putting themselves and other people in the water in harm,” said Justin Hodges from American Watersports.
This isn’t the first run-in with the law for the former football player. Back in 2014, he was arrested during an undercover prostitution sting in Miami.
And, while Ojomo waits to learn his fate, he said his arrest is all a misunderstanding and his business is above board. “Today, I didn’t have my boaters IDs, which is why I’m in handcuffs, which is wrong, and I’ll make that correction,” he said.
Ojomo is being held on a $1,500 bond.
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