After a months-long investigation, authorities have arrested a Hemet woman of suspicion of extracting nearly $200,000 in a “Ponzi scheme” involving her wholesale avocado business.

In late April, Riverside County sheriff’s deputies spoke with victims who alerted them to a potential investment fraud by Consuelo Carrasco-Ramirez, a 53-year-old Hemet resident, who ran a wholesale avocado business, according to a sheriff’s news release. Authorities said they spoke with seven victims who claimed Carrasco-Ramirez had coerced them into collectively investing $195,000 into her business since 2023 and often threatened to have Latino community members deported to make them invest more.

However, sheriff’s deputies say Carrasco-Ramirez engaged in a Ponzi scheme with the investment fund — a scam where

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