Almost 2,000 pairs of Nike Air Jordans were stolen from a train in Arizona last month, because thieves left with more than $ 440,000 in loot, unveiled government officials in federal court documents obtained by DailyMail.com.
The suspects, usually without paper migrants according to a criminal complaint submitted in Phoenix, would have cut an air brake snake on a BNSF goods train, making it immobile. Many of the shoes were Nigel Sylvester X Air Jordan 4S, who will not be available to the public until March 14 and are expected to be sold for $ 225 per pair, says the complaint.
However, these sneakers can go more than $ 2,500 or more on the resale market.
It is remarkable that this was not an isolated incident, but part of a larger series of train robberies aimed at lifting a valued sportswear, according to the authorities. Researchers say that at least 10 robberies have focused on BNSF trains in remote areas of the Mojave desert since last March, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. After all, one on one after theft of Nike Sneakers, according to researchers.
Eleven people who are being charged in the burglary of January 13 did not argue and were all laid down for the trial, in which judges of Arizona Magistraat that the defendants concluded, were a risk of fleeing the authorities.
The suspected thieves cut an air brake snake on a BNSF goods train (file photo from 2022)
Prior to those arrests, Felipe Arturo Avalos-Mejia (AKA: 'Pollo') was arrested last June for thefts of Nike shoes of more than $ 1,000. He is described in the federal complaint obtained by DailyMail.com as the 'leader of these burglar crews'.
“Apart from leading the crews, both personally and through cellular communication, he also supplied vehicles, paid the crews and the sale of the goods that has been stolen from Arizona trains, facilitates,” read the judicial file.
When Avalos-Mejia was finally arrested in a LA-Restaurant on June 21, he was picked up with another man with $ 120,000 cash in a Louis Vuitton bag and a record of Nike Merchandise that was assumed to have been stolen from BNSF trains , according to the federal complaint.
Avalos-Mejia has argued not guilty of possessing or receiving stolen goods.
Thieves usually explore merchandise on railway lines that paved parallel trains parallel trains parallel trains parallel, such as when they change trails and open containers, said Keith Lewis, vice-president of operations in Verisk's Cargonet and a deputy sheriff.
Lewis said The Times that the thieves are sometimes tipped for valuable shipments by employees who work at warehouses or truck companies.
The suspects are helped by accomplices in 'Follow vehicles', following the train wagons. The loot is thrown out of the train after stopping – either before a planned stop or because an air hose has been cut, according to Brynna Cooke, a special agent of the Homeland Security Investigations that is cited in sworn statements submitted to the Federal Court.
Last year, thefts of cargo trains cost the six largest freight railway in the country of the six largest freight railways due to a combination of the value of the stolen goods and the costs of repairs to rail cars the damaged thieves, and the problem has been worse in recent years as the thefts have become more organized and refined. The Association of American Railroads Trade Group estimates that the number of thefts last year has risen around 40 percent to 65,000 nationwide.
Felipe Arturo Avalos-Mejia (AKA: 'Pollo') was arrested last June for thefts of Nike shoes of more than $ 1,000. He is described as the 'leader of these burglar crews'
The railways have invested millions of measures to help prevent such thefts, but it is not as if they can easily limit access to the more than 140,000 mile job they operate throughout the country. It crosses remote, rural areas and cuts through the heart of many cities that carry millions of shipments of everything, from bulk products such as coal and grain to raw materials such as rock. Cars and metal shipping containers filled with almost any kind that conceivable product that is imported or exported are also transported.
The Rail Trade Group said that extra federal enforcement and harder penalties are needed to deter the thefts, which is a chronic problem. The railways estimate that only about 1 of every 10 theft attempts result in an arrest, and many of the people arrested are repeated perpetrators. One railway even reported to arrest the same person five times in one day.
BNSF and the other large freight railway that dragged goods in the Western United States, Union Pacific, did not immediately respond to questions from the Associated Press about the thefts, but the problem is something that the entire industry has to do with.
BNSF said in a statement to the Times that her internal police shares information with local law enforcement and prosecutors, if applicable.
Many of the stolen shoes were Nigel Sylvester X Air Jordan 4S, who will not be available to the public until March 14 and are expected to be sold for $ 225 per pair, the complaint states
Michael Jordan wears his iconic Nike sneakers during the NBA season 1987
The company said his crews have the task of not confronting thieves, but to report the incidents instead. But they rarely come across the crews, said it, because the trains are so long and the thieves ensure that the detection is avoided.
The suspects on the robbery of January 13 were caught using devices that were in some boxes, says the complaint.
In another case, a BNSF train came to an emergency stop near Hackberry, Arizona on November 20, after it started to lose the air, according to a complaint filed in the federal court of Phoenix. The delegates of the Sheriff in Mohave County stopped a white panel bus that left the area and found around 180 pairs when unprecatten Air Jordan 11 retro legend blue sneakers with a value of $ 41,400, the complaint states. The director did not argue guilty of possessing or receiving goods stolen by shipment between states.
Researchers also reclaimed a combined total of $ 346,200 from Nike Air Jordans at the time after two BNSF train burglaries in April and June, according to documents obtained by The Times. Two other cases in which BNSF goods trains were broken into last year near Kingman and Seligman, Arizona, resulted in the theft of $ 612,000 in Nikes and eight arrests, according to federal criminal complaints.
In 2022, thieves looted freight containers on board trains near the center of Los Angeles, thought packages of people in the US and left the tracks covered with discarded boxes. The daring thefts led authorities and cargo companies to increase security in the area.
