Two men in Miami stole 192 ventilators, worth $3 million, the authorities say.

A ventilator in an emergency field hospital. Two men in Miami have been sentenced on charges of stealing 192 ventilators the U.S. was sending to El Salvador in the first year of the pandemic. — A ventilator in an emergency field hospital. Two men in Miami have been sentenced on charges of stealing 192 ventilators that the U.S. was sending to El Salvador in the first year of the pandemic. Photo credit Rogelio V. Solis /AP

Two men in Miami have each been sentenced to 41 months in prison for stealing medical ventilators bound for a Covid-19 care facility in El Salvador as part of a U.S. aid program, federal authorities in Florida said on Friday.

The crime occurred in August 2020, according to a news release issued by the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of Florida after the sentencing of the second of the two men.

The men, Yoelvis Denis Hernandez, 42, and Luis Urra Montero, 25, stole a tractor-trailer from a parking lot in South Florida that was loaded with 192 ventilators, worth about $3 million, that were bound for Miami International Airport for shipping to El Salvador by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the statement said.

At the time, El Salvador was experiencing a pandemic surge and desperately seeking help to save severely ill residents.

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