Arizona authorities have arrested two people in connection with a series of train trading that led to the theft of Nike worth millions.
On Thursday, Hualapai Nation Police Department officials started a traffic stop on a Maroon Chevy Tahoe at about 02:40 who was believed to have been involved in several hijackers in the area.
After reversing the car, eight people fled the vehicle. The male driver was detained. Police found some of the stolen shoes near the car, police said in a news release.
In another traffic stop on Thursday, a white Toyota 4runner was covered on highway 66 as part of the investigation into the robberies. The female driver was stopped after he did not admit to an emergency vehicle. Police approached the vehicle and noticed evidence of criminal activity.
The patrol sergeant issued an oral assignment for the driver to leave the vehicle. The woman initially left the car, but returned to the driver’s seat, moved the vehicle in gear and drove away from the scene quickly. When she tried to flee, police said the car hit a patrol officer.
The officer sustained no injuries. Officers began a pursuit of the fleeing suspect stretching 80 miles and concluded near the Border of Arizona-California on Mile Marker 1 on Interstate 40. The driver lost control of the vehicle near a construction zone, collided with a handrail and thrown out of the car.
The woman sustained minor injuries and was transported to Valley View Medical Center in Mohave Valley for treatment. Both drivers were discussed in the Mohave County Adult Detention Center for their alleged involvement in the case.
Police did not disclose additional details about the alleged crimes or the identity of the suspects, except to say that they were both of Mexico and illegal in the US.
Police have investigated a series of robberies in the train near the Mojave Desert. According to the Los Angeles Times. Officials are currently investigating ten similar robberies.
In one January robbery near Perrin, Arizona, thieves cut an air brake hose on a BNSF handle and with more than 1,900 pairs of Nike shoes that were more than $ 440,000 worth more than $ 440,000. The shoes are on sale earlier this month for $ 225 per pair.
Eleven people who were charged in the burglary in January pleaded not guilty and were all ordered to trial, with the Arizona magistrate’s judges concluding the defendants that the defendants were at risk of fleeing the authorities.
All 11 defendants are charged with possession or receiving goods stolen from the interstate shipping. Ten of the 11 are Mexicans who were illegal in the United States. Another defendant is a Mexican citizen who was in asylum proceedings in the United States, the authorities in the court records said.
Keith Lewis, vice president of operations at Verisk’s Cargonet and a deputy sheriff in Arizona, said that thieves typically scouts of train lines that are parallel interstate 40 by dragging off sluggish moving traine.
Lewis got to the Times That the thieves are sometimes dismissed to valuable consignments by collaborators working at warehouses or trucks.
The suspects are aided by accomplices in ‘next vehicles’, who locate the train wagons. The loot is thrown away from the train after it stops – either for a scheduled stop or because an air snake has been cut, according to Brynna Cooke, a special agent for homeland security investigations cited in affidavits filed in the federal court.
Last year theft of freight trains cost the six largest cargo tracts of more than $ 100 million due to a combination of the value of the stolen goods and the cost of repairs to train wagons the thieves that were damaged, and the problem became worse over the past year as the thefts became more organized and sophisticated. The Association of American Railroads Trade Group estimates that the number of thefts jumped about 40% to 65,000 nationwide last year.
The railways have invested millions in measures to prevent such thefts, but it is not as if they can easily access the more than 140,000 miles of the track they operate across the country. It crosses remote, rural areas and cuts through the heart of many cities containing millions of shipping, from bulk products such as coal and grain to raw materials such as rock. Cars and metal cruise containers filled with almost every conceivable product imported or exported are also transported.
The railway group said that additional federal enforcement and stricter fines are needed to ward off the thefts, which are a chronic problem. The Railways estimate that only about 1 in ten theft attempts result in an arrest, and that many of the people arrested are repeated offenders. One railroad even arrested the same individual five times on a single day.
With reporting of the Associated Press
