EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Eleven men are in federal custody in connection with the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of Nike shoes off a BNSF train whose air brakes were cut as it traveled on tracks on Monday north of Phoenix.
It is the latest in a series of brazen thefts that have been on the rise in the past two years in a vast stretch of land between California and Arizona. Federal officials attribute the activity to associates of a transnational criminal organization based in Sinaloa, Mexico.
“Once the organization targets a train of interest, they find a location for several burglars to get on the train,” Homeland Security Investigations said in documents filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Arizona. “The burglars open container doors while the train is moving and target merchandise such as electronics, tools and footwear.”
Cartel associates look for containers with security locks – which they believe carry valuable goods. They use metal-cutting saws, bolt cutters and other tools to defeat the locking mechanism. What follows could easily cause a tragedy.
“The suspects often cut the train braking system air hose, which causes the train to go into emergency stop,” HSI said in the court documents. “This act is very dangerous and can cause a train to derail, which could cause serious injury or death to railroad company employees or citizens.”
Thieves also sabotage the train signal system by cutting locks on signal boxes and tearing at the wires inside.
“This also is a dangerous act that creates ‘dark areas’ on the rail network,” HSI said. “Trains travel at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour on multiple tracks east and west. Dispatchers and train crews rely on the signals for safe transportation.”
Once they manage to stop the trains, the thieves offload merchandise into the brush, notify other cartel associates of the location via cellphone and take off running to avoid being caught.
The cartel typically has vehicles following the train on nearby roads and one or more box trucks or small trailers to pick up the stolen merchandise. They typically sell it to amenable retailers in California or put it up for sale on Amazon, eBay and other digital platforms, the court documents allege.
Last Monday, BNSF police notified local authorities about a severed air hose on a cargo train near Perrin, Arizona. Railroad police also spotted a suspicious box truck parked a few miles from the location and, later, several crates piled up a short distance from the tracks.
According to a complain affidavit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, police in Coconino County drove by the Ford Econoline box truck and saw a Toyota Camry leaving the area. Police conducted a traffic stop and identified the occupants as Jaime Cota Peraza and Sadiel Martinez Soto. The box truck allegedly was temporarily registered to Martinez under a buyer agreement.
As this was going on, authorities were placing trackers on the abandoned crates. A short time later, the Ford Econoline showed up and authorities witnessed several people load them onto the vehicle, court records show.
The truck traveled to Kingman, where Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers conducted a stop and chased two men later identified as Erik Portillo Valdez and Noe Cecena Castro over a barbwire fence and some trees.
Authorities allegedly found 150 cases of Nike shoes worth $202,500.
A second vehicle – a Chevrolet Tahoe – allegedly also was found to be pulling a small trailer holding crates with hidden trackers. Police in Williams, Arizona, stopped the Tahoe, secured the merchandise and arrested more than half a dozen people in the vehicle. The monetary amount of that load was not specified.
Cota, Martinez, Portillo, Cecena and seven other individuals have been charged with felony possession or receipt of goods stolen from interstate shipment.
Nine of the suspects also were found to be in the United States illegally and six said they are natives of Sinaloa.
Court dates are pending. The investigation continues.
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