A Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department task force arrested six people and recovered nearly $200,000 in stolen merchandise in a string of operations spanning MacArthur Park, Glendale, Commerce and the Santa Clarita area. The busts, carried out over three days in early August, hit three very different corners of the region's theft economy: street-level fencing, warehouse cargo diversion and high-tech residential burglary.
Detectives with LASD's retail crime task force served warrants at the 700 blocks of Serrano Avenue and Alvarado Street in Los Angeles, arresting 47-year-old Cesar Santiago and 22-year-old Adriana Santiago, according to CBS Los Angeles. Deputies suspected the pair of reselling stolen retail items in the MacArthur Park area and booked them on suspicion of organized retail theft and receiving stolen property, per the outlet's report. The corridor along Alvarado Street has long been flagged by Los Angeles law enforcement as a hub where so-called “boosters” fence stolen cosmetics, clothing and household goods, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.
Task Force Coordinated With Major Retailers
The task force worked with Lululemon, Alo, Target, TJ Maxx and Macy's as part of the investigation, the station's report states. In connection with that effort, deputies located approximately $39,238 in stolen merchandise. Separately, Glendale Police Department officers arrested 18-year-old Luis Grisales Suarez at the Glendale Galleria, where he was wanted on several cases of organized retail theft and was booked on suspicion of organized retail theft and grand theft, per the same account.
Whether the MacArthur Park resale operation ties into a wider network of boosters supplying stolen Lululemon and Target merchandise remains an open question, one not addressed in the release detailing the arrests.
$150,000 in Stolen Toothpaste Found in Commerce Warehouse
LASD detectives and the Inland Empire Cargo Task Force executed a search warrant at a warehouse in the 2700 block of South Eastern Avenue in Commerce, where they found approximately $150,000 in stolen teeth-whitening toothpaste along with 22 Edifier speakers valued at more than $3,000, the article notes. The stolen merchandise recovered across the operations also included clothing, kitchenware, cosmetics and personal hygiene products.
Commerce and the surrounding Inland Empire have become major regional hubs for illegal cargo diversion; an October 2025 joint LASD and LAPD raid on a single warehouse enterprise in the area recovered $7 million in stolen freight and $1 million in cash, according to the LAPD. LASD's Organized Retail Crimes Task Force, formed within its Major Crimes Bureau in September 2023, splits its work among three units — the core ORCTF, the Cargo Criminal Apprehension Team and the Burglary and Robbery Task Force — a structure detailed by Patch. In 2026 alone, those combined units have recovered more than $28 million in stolen cargo freight across 36 search warrant executions throughout Southern California, according to the Major Crimes Bureau - LASD.
Wi-Fi Jammer Crew Linked to Burglaries in Three Cities
ORCTF detectives also investigated a South American theft group crew linked to organized retail thefts identified in Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties, per the news release cited by the station's report. A separate burglary crew monitored by Santa Clarita-area detectives was suspected of committing several residential burglaries in Walnut, Glendale and Baldwin Park.
LASD deputies arrested 38-year-old David Oyaga of Covina, 30-year-old Ivan Comas of North Hollywood and 32-year-old Edson Orozco-Castillo of Santa Ana, all booked for burglary. Deputies said the trio possessed a Wi-Fi jammer, false license plates and burglary tools, and that the crew used the jammer while casing a neighborhood and burglarizing a home. Federal law enforcement classifies South American Theft Groups as organized international networks whose members often enter the U.S. through the federal ESTA Visa Waiver Program and deploy high-tech tools against affluent properties, according to WUFT. What immigration or extradition protocols might apply to the Glendale-area arrests connected to that South American theft group crew was not addressed in the release.
Operating a Wi-Fi jammer to disrupt home security cameras is itself a distinct federal crime: manufacturing, marketing, importing or using radio frequency jamming devices violates the Communications Act under Federal Communications Commission regulations, per LB-LINK.
Prop 36 Gives Prosecutors New Leverage
The arrests come as Los Angeles County prosecutors lean on enhanced penalties created by Proposition 36, the ballot measure California voters passed in November 2024 that took effect that December. The measure amended Penal Code § 666.1 to allow shoplifting or petty theft of $950 or less to be charged as a felony punishable by up to three years in state prison for suspects with two or more prior theft convictions, according to the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies. Separately, Penal Code § 490.4 establishes organized retail theft as its own felony offense when two or more people act together to steal merchandise with intent to resell it, per the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.
Between December 2024 and May 2025, the county District Attorney's Office filed more than 1,000 felony theft charges against repeat offenders using the Proposition 36 enhancements. Statewide, the California Highway Patrol's Organized Retail Crime Task Force has conducted more than 4,500 investigations since 2019, making over 5,100 arrests and recovering 1.6 million stolen items worth more than $74.6 million, according to the Office of Governor Gavin Newsom.
The August arrests follow a string of similar LASD task force operations in the region this year, including a Norwalk fence bust that netted $200,000 in stolen merchandise in February and a broader multi-agency sweep across Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties in January. LASD is asking anyone with information about retail or cargo theft to contact its retail task force at 562-946-7270.
