A 58-year-old Colombian woman was detained for driving without a valid license and admitted to being in the country illegally.
Maria Cristina Cortes Garcia, who lives in the Sundance Trails apartments in Wildwood, was pulled over at 8 a.m. Thursday near the intersection of South Main Street and East Gulf Atlantic Highway.
According to an arrest report from the Wildwood Police Department, a sergeant conducted a records check on Cortes Garcia’s vehicle registration and discovered that the registered owner did not have a Florida driver’s license. The sergeant saw that the driver matched the visual description of the registered owner and conducted a traffic stop.
When cops asked for her license, Cortes Garcia presented them a Colombian passport and a driver’s license that expired in 2025. Due to the language barrier, another officer was dispatched to the scene to translate.
Cortes Garcia revealed to officers that she did not have a Florida license and had been unable to obtain one due to her lack of legal status in the United States. A check of the law enforcement database revealed that she had never been issued a valid driver’s license in the United States.
She was detained on a misdemeanor allegation of driving without a legal license. Cortes Garcia was booked into the Sumter County Detention Center and later released after paying a $500 bond.
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