Nine men authorities say are tied to the Sinaloa Cartel were arrested in San Bernardino after investigators spent a year chasing down who was behind a wave of thefts from BNSF freight trains. The arrests capped a search of a home in the 1200 block of East 35th Street on Oct. 16, where deputies say they found guns, drugs, cash and hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen retail merchandise.
According to NBC Los Angeles, officials announced the arrests Wednesday, describing a coordinated operation that identified specific suspects and the vehicles investigators believe they used to pull off the thefts. The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department says the investigation ultimately traced back to a scheme that caused millions of dollars in stolen property losses, according to KTLA. All nine men arrested were identified as residents of Mexico, with names including Jose Navarrete, Brian Iran Fontes-Carrillo and Mauro Ruiz-Medina, per the station's report.
What Deputies Say They Found Inside the Home
The Oct. 16 search near Harrison Street and Lynwood Drive turned up a substantial cache of alleged evidence. Investigators seized four semiautomatic handguns, a drone allegedly used for surveillance, a large amount of cash, tools believed to have been used to break into train cargo containers, and suspected-sale fentanyl, the same report notes.
The retail haul was just as notable. Recovered goods reportedly included Nike shoes, New Balance shoes, Victoria's Secret merchandise, Logitech computer hardware, JBL speakers and Husky tools. The exact dollar value of that recovery is disputed across accounts: KTLA reported more than $300,000 worth of stolen retail merchandise, while NBC Los Angeles put the figure at a similar but distinct sum, and Infobae cited more than $333,000 in stolen merchandise. The nine suspects were booked on suspicion of theft of railroad property, conspiracy and possession of a controlled substance while armed, per the KTLA account.
Part of a Bigger Pattern Along San Bernardino's Rail Corridor
This case is far from an isolated incident. The BNSF rail line running through San Bernardino County has become a hotspot for cargo burglaries in recent months, according to the San Bernardino Sun. In August, deputies arrested Leonardo Martinez Navarre after allegedly finding $150,000 worth of New Balance merchandise taken from BNSF boxcars stashed in his van, the Sun reported. Around the same time, deputies recovered more than $123,000 in Brooks running shoes after a suspected boxcar burglary near Ludlow and Daggett, according to FreightWaves.
More than two dozen people were arrested in a separate string of October search warrants connected to Victor Valley train cargo thefts, CBS Los Angeles reported, with three suspects arrested after deputies served seven search warrants in Los Angeles County and recovered more than $2 million in stolen train cargo. BNSF officials estimated the property recovered in that case totaled $2,118,459.20, per the outlet. Earlier in October, an LAPD-led cargo theft task force recovered $1 million in stolen BNSF train property amounting to 35 pallets of cargo, according to the Los Angeles Police Department, which booked a business owner for receiving stolen property under California Penal Code section 496(A) in a case it described as still ongoing.
A Regional Theft Problem With National Numbers Behind It
Other recent cases underline how widespread the rail cargo theft problem has become across Southern California. Seventeen suspects were arrested in connection with other Victor Valley train burglaries, with more than $437,000 in cash and stolen goods recovered, according to ABC7 Los Angeles. A March investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department recovered $7 million in stolen goods and led to nine arrests, while a separate February operation led by the Los Angeles Police Department resulted in five arrests and $5 million in recovered property, both per the Sun's reporting.
The trend lines up with a broader national spike. Verisk CargoNet documented 677 supply-chain theft incidents across the United States and Canada in the second quarter of this year, a drop from the prior year, yet estimated cargo losses still more than doubled to $304.6 million, up from $135.7 million a year earlier, the firm reported. Business email compromise remained the primary access point for many of the quarter's most sophisticated schemes, according to the same CargoNet report.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department is asking anyone with information about the case to contact the department or the We-Tip hotline at 844-909-3006.
