Thirteen people are facing charges after Memphis authorities say they caught the group unloading $250,000 worth of stolen chicken from a semi-trailer in a hotel parking lot. Officers recovered three handguns during the operation, and at least three suspects now face felony weapons charges on top of the cargo theft case.
According to Action News 5, the Memphis Safe Task Force located Javunte Johnson and 12 other individuals unloading pallets of stolen chicken in the back parking lot of a hotel in the 3800 block of Lamar Avenue. The station reports that the suspects fled the scene before authorities managed to capture all 13 of them.
Johnson, 33, had an outstanding arrest warrant for aggravated robbery and was additionally charged with possession of a firearm, the station's report notes. Two other men detained at the scene, 37-year-old Jessie Moore and 25-year-old Quantrivious Shavers, were each charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, per the same account. The identities and specific charges for the remaining ten people arrested have not been released.
Firearms Recovered at the Scene
Officers recovered three handguns during the arrests, the outlet reports, though it remains unclear which suspects were found in possession of which weapons. Under federal guidelines outlined by the U.S. Department of Justice, anyone previously convicted of a felony is barred from possessing a firearm, a restriction that also applies to people subject to a domestic-violence protective order.
The $250,000 valuation placed on the stolen chicken pallets puts the Memphis case well above the average reported loss for a single cargo theft. The National Insurance Crime Bureau estimates the average value of an individual cargo theft at greater than $202,000, and the bureau lists truck stops and parking lots among the most common locations where these thefts occur.
Part of a Bigger Pattern Nationally
Poultry has become a recurring target for cargo thieves well beyond Memphis. In Miami-Dade County last September, two people were arrested near Miami International Airport after allegedly stealing a trailer loaded with frozen chicken worth about $100,000, with the trailer itself valued at roughly $90,000, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau. Those two suspects were each held on $15,000 bond and charged with grand theft cargo and grand theft of a vehicle.
A separate Miami case from September 2024 involved a stolen tractor-trailer carrying about $100,000 worth of frozen poultry, and a third suspect, Yoel Torres-Diaz, was later arrested and charged with grand theft of a vehicle, grand theft of cargo, and unlawful use of a communications device, as reported by NBC 6 South Florida. Food and beverage products remain one of the top categories of goods stolen nationwide, according to the crime bureau, a pattern echoed by Munich Re's 2025 cargo theft report, which found that food and beverage shipments accounted for 22 percent of tracked theft incidents last year, making them the single most targeted commodity category worldwide.
Cargo Theft Losses Keep Climbing
The Memphis bust lands amid a broader surge in cargo crime. The National Insurance Crime Bureau reports that cargo theft losses rose 27 percent in 2024 and were projected to climb another 22 percent in 2025, with total annual losses nationwide estimated as high as $35 billion. The bureau's data underscores why hotel parking lots and highway rest stops have become common flashpoints for these thefts, since trailers often sit unattended there for hours at a time.
The evidence surrounding the Memphis case does not indicate whether the stolen chicken was recovered, where the shipment had originally been headed, or how investigators arrived at the $250,000 figure. It also does not identify the trucking company, hotel, or supplier involved, and no police report, booking records, or bond details have been made public beyond what Action News 5 has reported.
