EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Four people are facing federal felony charges after allegedly being caught with hundreds of Nike shoes stolen from cargo trains in Arizona.
The arrest of Anthony “Buffy” Conditt and Diego Melchor Cruz came after a box truck allegedly struck two Flagstaff, Arizona, police vehicles in a tunnel leading to Interstate 40.
Dominique Meade and Jessica Rodriguez, two California residents, were arrested a day earlier near Ash Fork, Arizona, after sheriff’s deputies who had been alerted to the theft of a cargo train noticed boxes of shoes visible inside a Chevrolet cargo van driving with no license plate light, court records show.
The arrests coincide with a spike of merchandise thefts from cargo trains authorities attribute to criminal organizations in Sinaloa, Mexico, with extensive connections to individuals in Arizona and California.
The gangs target trains they believe transport electronics, tools or high-value apparel or shoes, according to Homeland Security Investigations. The criminals send associates to find a way to stop the train and open containers with bolt cutters. They hire others to follow the trains on motor vehicles and pick up stolen merchandise once it is taken off the train, HSI said in court filings.
On Tuesday, a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train came to a stop on tracks north of Ash Fork due to railroad traffic. Operators of the passing train observed several individuals offloading boxes from the train making a stop, as well as three vehicles gathering near the tracks.
BNSF notified Cocorino County authorities, who sent sheriff’s deputies to the area. That’s when the deputies spotted boxes “stacked to the roof” while looking at the windows of a moving Chevrolet van, court records show.
The deputies also noticed the van’s license plate light was not working and stopped the vehicle.
Meade, the driver, told a deputy he wasn’t carrying a driver’s license nor had registration papers for the Chevrolet because he borrowed it from a friend he only identified as “Buffy.”
Meade told deputies Buffy asked him to transport the shoes and that he was traveling with Rodriguez, whom he identified as his girlfriend. Records show the deputies received permission to look inside the van and located a glass pipe and a small bag with methamphetamine.
Deputies questioned passenger Rodriguez, who allegedly admitted to having consumed meth earlier in the day but denied the drugs and paraphernalia belonged to her. Rodriguez told deputies she didn’t know shoes — 180 pair of Air Jordan 5 Retro Nike shoes — were in the van, and denied being Meade’s girlfriend, adding she had just met him.
Record show Rodriguez told deputies she was having heart problems and requested medical assistance. The woman told medical first responders she was having suicidal thoughts. She was taken to an Arizona hospital, medically cleared and taken to county jail.
Meade was taken into custody at the scene on charges of possession of stolen goods with a value of $1,000 or more. Rodriguez was similarly charged.
Two hours later, deputies saw a white box truck leaving the area of the railroad tracks. The deputies set up surveillance near an access road to I-40 but the truck apparently took another route.
Early the next morning, Flagstaff police officers reported seeing the white box truck enter a tunnel leading to I-40. They turned on their emergency lights and attempted a stop, but the driver slowed, put the vehicle in reverse and accelerated, court records show.
The box truck hit two marked police units and fled the tunnel. Cocorino County sheriff’s deputies picked up the pursuit and saw occupants run after abandoning the box truck with approximately 600 pair of Nike shoes inside.
Court records show deputies saw Conditt walking in a wooded area 25 yards from the truck and detained him.
Hours later, a Cocorino County Public Works employee observed Melchor walking in the woods. Williams Police Department officers took him into custody.
Melchor allegedly told HSI agents he was a California resident who came camping to Arizona with his girlfriend. He later changed his story and said he came with three friends who left him in the woods and a white box truck gave him a ride, court records show.
When agents confronted him with a traffic camera photo showing he was the driver of the box truck when the vehicle struck sheriff’s deputies, Melchor allegedly restated he was only a passenger.
Melchor was carrying an iPhone and a secondary cellphone and stated he was from Mexico, records show.
Conditt and Melchor were also charged with possession goods valued at $1,000 or more. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 5 in U.S. District Court in Flagstaff.
Investigators estimate the stolen Nikes are worth $175,000.
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