For years, a classy retail crime ring plundered Residence Depots throughout Southern California, pulling off greater than 600 thefts and netting an estimated $10 million price of merchandise with out penalties — till now, authorities stated.
On Tuesday, the Ventura County district legal professional’s workplace introduced the submitting of a 48-count legal grievance in opposition to 9 alleged key gamers in what Residence Depot says is the most important focused theft ring within the enterprise’ historical past.
The retail crime ring focused 71 Residence Depot places in Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, generally hitting the identical shops a number of instances a day, prosecutors allege.
Items that have been stolen from Residence Depot places have been allegedly fenced by David Ahl by Arya Wholesale, his Tarzana enterprise.
(Ventura County district legal professional’s workplace)
A number of regulation enforcement companies labored collectively to take down the theft crew by “Operation Kill Swap,” which arrested 14 folks on Aug. 14, 9 of whom have since been charged, authorities stated.
The legal enterprise was allegedly led by David Ahl of Woodland Hills, who faces 45 felony counts, together with conspiracy, organized retail theft, grand theft, receiving stolen property and cash laundering, prosecutors stated. If convicted as charged, he faces as much as 32 years in jail.
Ahl is accused of directing theft crews to grab high-value gadgets at Residence Depots — similar to breakers, dimmers, switches and shops — that he would then resell by his electronics storefront in Tarzana in a method generally known as fencing.
“His crews of thieves, generally known as boosters, stole merchandise from the Residence Depot’s shops, generally hitting each Residence Depot in Ventura County in a single day,” stated Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff at Tuesday’s information convention. “Then the boosters would ship the stolen gadgets in trash baggage or Residence Depot containers to his enterprise or to his residence, the place he paid them in money.”
The crime ring was, partially, a household affair, prosecutors stated.
Ahl’s brother-in-law, Omid Abrishamkar of Calabasas, is accused of serving to promote the stolen merchandise by EBay and faces 11 felony counts associated to cash laundering and reselling stolen property.
Ahl’s ex-wife, Lorena Solis of Downey, is accused of getting in on the motion by working an almost an identical fencing enterprise within the Los Angeles space alongside her associate, Enrique Neira Moreno of Downey. They every face eight felony counts.
5 prolific boosters within the ring have been additionally arrested and face felony costs, authorities stated.
They embrace Jose Banuelos Guerrero of South Gate, Edwin Rivera of Los Angeles and Eber Bonilla Lopez of Pomona, who’re accused of working collectively to commit thefts each day, typically stealing $6,000 to $10,000 in merchandise at a time, prosecutors stated.
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Workplace stated it had seized not less than $3.7 million in stolen Residence Depot property and greater than $800,000 in suspected illicit cash from suspects’ accounts.
(Ventura County district legal professional’s workplace)
Surveillance digital camera footage launched by the district legal professional’s workplace exhibits Bonilla-Lopez filling his jacket pockets with electrical breakers from a Residence Depot and utilizing a pole to swipe containers full {of electrical} elements from the highest cabinets.
A second alleged boosting crew consisting of Erlin Hernandez Lopez and Denny Gomez, each of Pomona, are charged with three felony counts of conspiracy to commit retail theft.
Residence Depot estimates that the crew is collectively accountable for greater than $10 million in stolen merchandise. For the reason that Aug. 14 arrests, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Workplace has seized not less than $3.7 million in stolen Residence Depot property and greater than $800,000 in suspected illicit cash from accounts belonging to Ahl and Abrishamkar.
Throughout Tuesday’s information convention, Fryhoff praised Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin (D-Thousand Oaks) for authoring Meeting Invoice 1779, which was signed into regulation final 12 months and permits retail crimes that happen throughout a number of counties to be consolidated right into a single legal submitting.
“With out this regulation, we might be prosecuting widespread crimes by the identical defendants in a number of jurisdictions, a pricey and time-consuming endeavor,” he stated. “Nonetheless, due to this laws, Ventura County has consolidated the Los Angeles Residence Depot theft costs into the 48-count legal grievance.
L.A. County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman additionally praised the invoice and stated that cracking down on retail crime is a high precedence for his workplace.
“That is the beginning of efforts to go after these giant crews,” he stated. “They thought they have been subtle, they thought they may disguise. As we speak’s announcement of those costs exhibits vastly otherwise.”
