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Auto theft is the most costly property crime in the nation. Los Angeles County residents have 89,000 vehicles stolen each year, valued at approximately $360 million. It is estimated that 35,000 of these vehicles are shipped out of Los Angeles ports each year.
Concluding an 11month undercover operation, during which agents purchased more than 60 vehicles, the Task Force for Regional Auto Theft Prevention (TRAP) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested 24 people suspected of being members of a network that specialized in the theft of high end sports utility vehicles (SUVs).
TRAP is a multi-jurisdictional task force, consisting of local, county and state law enforcement agencies, created to combat organized commercial vehicle theft. It is made up of experienced investigators from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Department of Motor Vehicles, the California Highway Patrol and a host of other police agencies, including Burbank, Glendale and Los Angeles.
The arrests were orchestrated from a command post at the Sheriff’s Department Emergency Operations Center in East Los Angeles. The operation involved more than 200 law enforcement personnel deployed at ten locations throughout the Los Angeles area.
The suspects allegedly stole more than $2.5 million worth of expensive vehicles, such as fully loaded Toyota Land Cruisers and Lexus 450’scosting well over $50,000 each and altered the Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs), which are hidden throughout vehicles for the purpose of deterring theft. Numerous vehicles were then offered to undercover FBI agents. The suspects were allegedly adept at stealing vehicles without causing much damage. Some were so proficient that they could break in and steal a SUV in less than 30 seconds.
Typically, the thieves would store a stolen vehicle at a remote location to determine whether sophisticated anti-theft radio tracking devices would alert police to the vehicle’s location. Once confident the vehicle was not being traced, the thieves would bring it to a warehouse for the VIN alterations.
Investigators ultimately purchased 53 high end SUVs, each at a fraction of its true cost. Many of these vehicles came with altered VINs and counterfeit registration documents. Other SUVs were taken to the warehouse (which the FBI had equipped with video surveillance equipment), and some of the suspects allegedly worked on the complicated process of switching the VINs.
Recently, 15 additional vehicles were recovered following the service of several search warrants, and the subjects arrested face charges of trafficking vehicles with altered VINs, a Federal charge that carries a maximum penalty of a tenyear prison sentence and a $250,000 fine. Eight of the suspects face charges of altering VINs, which carry an additional maximum penalty of five years in prison.
Some of those arrested include Eric Fernandez, Freddy Orlando Espinoza, Ernesto Coronado “Aaron” Estrada, Carlos Humberto Lima, Selvyn Paz, Adan Polanco, Carlos Humberto “Cuso” Caceres, Omar Valle Noriega, Franklyn Castillo (AKA Eric Garcia), Reymond Evereth Villatoro (AKA Raymundo Joshua), Juan Cerna “Buki” Rojo and Marlon Alfonso Figueroa.
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