Seven people are charged in what the Justice Department describes as an intercontinental “crime tourism” ring that targeted affluent locations across the nation so that more than $5 million in stolen goods could be shipped to South America.
Federal prosecutors describe the operation as a concierge service of sorts for criminals, where bands of thieves from South America came into the Los Angeles area and were given cars and directions to upscale areas across the country that ring organizers felt were ripe for burglaries, shoplifting and fraud.
“In essence, they acted as quarterbacks for a team of thieves,” said Martin Estrada, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California. “Crime tourism is a major problem impacting not just Southern California, but our entire nation.”
Once they received cars and leads for where to go, the thieves fanned out to other states and launched “theft crime sprees,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice. They are believed to have committed hundreds of robberies across the country, Estrada said.
Juan Carlos Thola-Duran, Ana Maria Arriagada, John Carlo Thola, Patricia Enderton, Miguel Angel Barajas and Federico Jorge Triebel IV were indicted by a grand jury in June for what the DOJ said in a Wednesday statement is widespread burglary, theft and other crimes throughout the country from January 2018 to about July 2024. The department alleges they sent the illicit property and profits to South American countries.
According to the indictment unsealed Wednesday, Thola-Duran directed others to travel to the U.S. and shoplift from various stores, burglarize homes and businesses and steal people’s credit and debit cards. He and Arriagada worked with other co-conspirators to provide transportation for the crime through their company Driver Power Rentals, according to the justice department.
The department hit the seven with 46 charges ranging from wire fraud to money laundering. If convicted, the group could face up to a maximum of 20 years in prison for each wire fraud and money laundering count, up to 10 years for the structuring counts and up to five years for conspiracy to transport stolen property.
Defendants used rental car company to carry out scheme
According to the indictment, Thola-Duran and Arriagada directed their co-conspirators to “rent” out their vehicles by falsifying records to keep the conspirators’ identities anonymous and to make the rental company appear legitimate.
Prosecutors say they stole from people in Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Florida, Kansas and many other states. Undercover agents from the FBI and other law enforcement agencies helped bust the scheme, according to court records. Among the records, prosecutors said the defendants coordinated the scheme over WhatsApp, an instant messaging platform, using coded language.
“These criminals were running a burglary operation with a sophistication that rivals Amazon and instead of dispatching delivery drivers, they were dispatching trained thieves throughout Southern California to steal from what should be where we are safest – our homes,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer.
Upon stealing victims’ credit and debit cards, the group maxed out the cards at stores like Target, Best Buy and Home Depot. They bought electronics, gift cards and high-end luxury goods before the cards were frozen or canceled.
“For gift cards purchased with stolen credit or debit cards, defendant Thola’s payment percentage would depend on his and the co-conspirators’ understanding of the type of gift card purchased, the co-conspirator’s prior relationship with defendant Thola, and how quickly the gift card would be frozen or cancelled due to fraud detection,” according to the indictment.
Thola-Duran allegedly acted as a “fence” to purchase stolen or fraudulently obtained goods and would pay co-conspirators a percentage of the items’ values. Thola-Duran allegedly sold the goods for about $5.5 million over the years.
Some of the profits of the sales were used to buy real estate and horses, prosecutors said. The ring used structured withdrawals in an attempt to thwart banks from reporting transactions over $10,000.
Prosecutors said the group would send the stolen items to various countries such as Colombia via FedEx or by putting them in luggage on flights out of the Los Angeles International Airport. Funds from the conspiracy would also be transferred to people in Chile, prosecutors said.
Among other charges in the indictment, prosecutors accused the defendants of defrauding the Paycheck Protection and Economic Injury Disaster programs, which have been marred by fraud since its launch.
“Today, we dismantled a non-traditional facilitator of organized crime, and now we have a blueprint for future investigations,” said Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI Los Angeles Field Office. “We hope these arrests will discourage future businesses from conducting similar operations, thus reducing the number of thefts and burglaries in our communities.”
Contact reporter Krystal Nurse at [email protected]. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter,@KrystalRNurse.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Seven hit with 46 charges for international ‘crime tourism’ scheme
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Publish date : 2024-08-28 15:14:00
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