Case Studies of Professional Theft Rings and Their Criminal Activities
Organized Retail Crime, already a large national problem, continues to grow rapidly.
As these case studies illustrate, Organized Retail Crime does not involve petty shoplifting of a pair of jeans or a pack of gum. Organized Retail Crime instead is a growing problem that involves organized interstate or international theft rings who use the illicit profits to fund continuing criminal activities.
Florida: A five-year-old theft ring stole up to $100 million
In early 2008, authorities broke up an enormous organized crime retail ring in Polk County, Florida. It began as a single shoplifting investigation. Investigators soon turned up an 18-member organized enterprise that stole up to $100 million in medicine, health and beauty goods.
Operating for at least five years, the ringleaders directed a sophisticated theft ring that stole from convenience and grocery stores statewide.
“I highly suspect that this is just the tentacle of a larger operation, ” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told The Legend, the local newspaper. “This is truly more of the beginning of the investigation than its end.”
The well-concealed theft ring included 13 known shoplifters, who used bags designed to conceal stolen items. They sold the stolen goods out of two warehouses, three flea markets, their own Web site and an Internet auction site, Judd said.
Texas: Stolen infant formula—and assassination plots
On the eve of 9/11, Texas agents pulled over a rental truck filled with baby formula. The arrest led agents to some $2.7 million in stolen assets.
The stolen goods included $1 million in stolen baby formula that was being stored in garages with rodents running across storage facilities with no temperature controls. Writing about the case, Security Management Online said:
“Fences are good at hiding their craft. As part of their operation, fences will clean, repackage, and re-label goods to make them appear as legitimate products. They will also switch labels, particularly if items are damaged or out of date.”
The crime ring hatched a plot behind bars to assassinate a police detective and a special investigator for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Court transcripts showed that the leader tried to hire Crip gang members to arrange the hits for $500. That plot failed. They also plotted to murder the federal prosecutor on the case. It, too, was foiled.
Oregon: Ring uncovered that operated from Oregon to Texas and Florida
In 2001 the Portland division of Safeway opened an investigation of three major fences and presented the information to the FBI. Over the course of the next three years, Safeway and the FBI continued the investigation and successfully broke up a multistate Organized Retail Crime network operating from Oregon to Texas to Florida.
The investigation led to the seizure of more than $3 million in product, $950,000 in cash and federal criminal prosecution of 49 suspects. The suspects told federal investigators that they resold much of the stolen product on an Internet auction site because of the anonymity assured by the site.
Maryland: Student Makes $50,000 selling stolen items on an Internet auction site
On Christmas Eve 2005, the Montgomery County Police Department apprehended a college student. By his own admission, the student made over $50,000 auctioning off stolen merchandise on an Internet auction site.
The items, stolen from stores such as Best Buy, Target, and Wal-Mart, included high-end computer graphic cards, GPS navigation units, books, expensive iPod accessories, and many other items.