Brazen train robbers are increasingly targeting Southern California’s vast rail network to pull off sophisticated heists and quickly traffic their loot — even flaunting their crimes on social media.
More than 65,000 train heists occur nationwide each year, with anywhere from a 25% to 40% of the thefts hitting Southern California annually, investigators told The California Post.
The value of the bandits’ plunder reaches into the tens to hundreds of millions of dollars, according to sources with knowledge of the crimes.
Investigators revealed that tracking the crimes is difficult because they often go unreported, stoking fears that the epidemic could be even worse than imagined.
They say the trend is growing and more trains are being hit, as cartel-run crime rings behind the operations grow bolder in their thefts of shoes, clothing, tools and electronics quickly resold at deep discounts online.
“We call it shopping,” Supervisor Detective Carlos Monteroso of the LAPD’s Cargo Theft Task Force told the California Post. “The crews break into individual containers until they find what they’re looking for that’s high value. Then they’ll do their thing.”
Insiders working at the Port of Los Angeles have access to computer files with sensitive information about valuable train loads, investigators say, feeding those tips to crime bosses who dispatch their cavalries to remote train tracks.
LA has managed the busiest container port in the Western Hemisphere for the past 25 years, with roughly 2.65 million 20-foot containers leaving the port annually via railway. Thefts aren’t always reported because they occur on private railways, investigators say.
With Christmas coming and new products making their way to stores for holiday shoppers, the detective said train thefts are set to explode, disrupting supply chains for sought-after holiday presents.
Monteroso explained that the thieves are highly organized.
“These crews have identified vulnerable points along the tracks where they’ll get onto the trains coming from the Port of Los Angeles,” he said. “They’ll ride them out to into a remote part of the desert where they cut the brake hose, to force an emergency stop.”
Once the trains are stationary, robbers have anywhere from minutes to hours to pilfer freight cars before police arrive, Monteroso explained.
As masked bandits cut into containers with electric handsaws, dozens of accomplices will arrive at the tracks in vans, SUVs and box trucks, sometimes filming the heists and posting them online.
“You’re seeing 20 guys, offloading several hundreds or thousands of boxes,” the detective said. “You know, just taking as much of the property as they can.”
Nike shoes, Victoria Secret pajamas, Yeti Coolers, DeWalt tools and more have been recovered by police or seen in viral videos of recent heists.
The stolen goods are then funneled to resellers, who market the merchandise to customers through eBay, OfferUp and other online platforms. Those sites “have become the places for these guys to sell all this stolen property,” Monteroso said.
“There’s a whole network of buyers,” the detective said. “This guy buys electronics, this guy buys shoes. This guy buys tools. This guy buys e-bikes. A lot of money can be made. The amount of property they’re stealing represents a lot of money.”
Monteroso’s team solved a stolen-shoe case worth $1 million just last month. Among the evidence was an unreleased collaboration between Brooks and Disney that had been stolen from a train, he said. One suspect was listing the shoes on eBay before they had even reached the public.
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Undercover investigators purchased some of the shoes and traced the transactions to a cavernous warehouse in Chatsworth. Inside, they found 35 pallets of footwear from Hoka, New Balance, Adidas, ON and Salomon, as well as a large shipment of JanSport backpacks.
The warehouse owner, 51-year-old Heros Tasci of Simi Valley, was booked at Van Nuys Jail on suspicion of receiving stolen property. Tasci allegedly used a business called DesignerDeals4Less to sell the merchandise, Monteroso said.
But suspects such as Tasci represent only the middle tier of a much larger cargo-theft industry.
Investigators say the crime ring leaders who direct these operations are largely beyond reach. They coordinate major cargo theft networks remotely, often from outside the United States. Members of the Russian mafia, Turkish organized crime groups and Mexican cartels are among those investigators say are involved.
San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies arrested nine alleged train thieves linked to the Sinaloa Cartel late last month. Authorities seized $333,000 worth of stolen merchandise, including JBL speakers, Logitech computer equipment, Victoria’s Secret clothing, Nike and New Balance shoes, and Husky tools.
Investigators also recovered four semiautomatic handguns, a surveillance drone, a large amount of cash, tools used to break into train containers, fentanyl suspected to be intended for sale and four vehicles tied to recent train-cargo burglaries.
The large-scale arrest followed a yearlong investigation that led deputies to a home on East 35th Street in San Bernardino. Nine suspects were taken into custody, all Mexican nationals from the crime-ridden state of Sinaloa.
A sheriff’s sergeant said the investigation remains active.
Keith Lewis, a cargo-theft specialist with 45 years of experience and vice president of operations at Verisk CargoNet, a cargo-theft intelligence and recovery network, said investigators rarely reach the people directing the heists.
“The guys we catch, nobody speaks English, and if you do have somebody who does speak English, they want a lawyer and they have no idea” who hired them, Lewis said.
“They have a phone that leads to another burner phone. The person who answers that burner phone just says ‘hello,’” Lewis said, a setup that typically leaves investigators with nowhere to go.
Meanwhile, “the shot caller is sitting somewhere drinking a margarita or a glass of vodka, telling these guys what to do,” Lewis said. “The shot caller is not going out and breaking in, so you really never get to the shot caller.”
Rail operators use drones, fences and cameras to protect their lines, Lewis said. But with thousands of miles of track running through remote areas, securing every stretch is nearly impossible.
“They’re very proactive. They do a very good job,” Lewis said. “They have their own police department, so they’re not calling 911 to make a police report. They’re not going to share a lot of this information, though, because it’s their bad fortune.”
One leading cargo-theft investigator employed by a major corporation said the amount of merchandise stolen from trains is severely underreported. National losses may exceed tens of billions of dollars each year, the investigator said.
Light penalties for property theft in California make it difficult for investigators to persuade suspects to cooperate, leaving the true scale of the problem unclear and allowing those at the top to avoid consequences, the investigator said.
“There is no threat of prosecution for any of these people,” one top investigator said. “So that’s the core of the problem. The whole thing is very poorly defined.”
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