- 1 year ago
On Wednesday, the Commercial Crimes Division of the LAPD announced a major raid on an organized cargo theft operation.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you very much, Captain Boateng, and thank you for your team for the work that was done on this case in particular.
00:06So good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for being here today.
00:09I want to recognize the outstanding work of LAPD's Commercial Crimes Division Organized Retail and Cargo Theft Unit,
00:18as well as our partners at the Union Pacific Police Department and at the Los Angeles Port Police,
00:25all who are standing with us here today.
00:26On August 14th and 19th, detectives served two search warrants at businesses in Montebello and Huntington Park.
00:34The investigation targeted DJ General Tool & Wire, identified as a major storefront fencing operation.
00:42During the search, detectives recovered an estimated $4.5 million in stolen property.
00:48The merchandise included tools, appliances, e-bikes, and other items stolen from train and cargo shipments.
00:54Brands like Dyson, Milwaukee, DeWalt, and Makita.
00:58Much of this property was being resold through the storefront, which you see pictures of here today, and online via retail platforms.
01:06While the storefront appears legitimate, what you see here is millions of dollars in stolen goods,
01:11making them appear to the public as if they were legitimately sourced.
01:16I'm happy to share with you with the hard work of LAPD and our partner agencies.
01:22Not only has this stolen property been recovered, but key arrest has been made as well.
01:27Dojun Park, 41 years of age, of Montebello, who was operating these storefronts, was arrested and booked for receiving stolen property.
01:35With his arrest, we have stopped him from being able to profit off these stolen goods.
01:39It's also important to remember that cargo theft is not a victimless crime.
01:44It affects retailers, distributors, and ultimately all of us consumers.
01:49It's also important to remember that protecting the integrity of our supply chain is vital to public safety,
01:56as well as the economic stability of Los Angeles.
02:00This investigation remains ongoing, and we anticipate additional arrests will be made.
02:05We're working with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, and charges are pending.
02:10Anyone with information about organized cargo or retail theft is urged to contact LAPD or Crime Stoppers anonymously.
02:18Together, along with our federal, state, and local partners, we'll continue to hold criminals accountable and to protect our communities.
02:25I'd now like to introduce the District Attorney of Los Angeles County, Nathan Hochman.
02:31So I would like to amplify what actually has occurred today.
02:40We have taken down one of the major fencers involving in the cargo theft area, Dojun Park of Montebello.
02:48We are in the process of fully evaluating the crimes that he has committed,
02:53and we anticipate charges being brought against him in the not-so-distant future.
02:57That will involve maximum sentences of years of state prison time.
03:02But what I wanted to emphasize is one of the things that Chief McDonald said.
03:07That cargo theft is not a victimless crime.
03:10While it might seem a little far away on a rail track,
03:14what is actually being stolen is stuff that is entering our commerce and affecting real businesses,
03:20real employees of those businesses.
03:22It is affecting the ability of Los Angeles County to be considered one of the best port cities
03:29for people bringing their goods into this country.
03:33We do not want anyone to question whether or not you can bring your goods into this country successfully through Los Angeles.
03:41Just the opposite.
03:42We want to send the opposite message.
03:45That if you do bring your goods in through Los Angeles, they will be protected.
03:49As they work their way from the port, onto the trains, onto actual stores across this country.
03:56The LAPD did a fantastic job working with the port police and Union Pacific police as well.
04:03And they should absolutely be commended.
04:06But I want to send an equally important message to the people in the entire vertical hierarchy of cargo theft.
04:13You will actually, whether you're the people who actually go out and steal these goods on the railroad lines or at the ports,
04:22we're going to come after you.
04:23If you go ahead and remember, most of these people, all these people, when they steal these goods,
04:29whether it's a Milwaukee power tool or a Dyson type of vacuum, they're not stealing it to use it.
04:36They're stealing it to sell it and make money.
04:39So we are going after the fencers.
04:41This case is a huge indication of the type of efforts we're going to bring to go after the people fencing this.
04:49Mr. Park, as the charges will eventually show, was using a fencing operation in two different forums,
04:57online and an actual physical site, where they were able to seize over $4.5 million of goods and counting.
05:05So how are we going after the fencers?
05:09Well, they in turn don't, sometimes they'll have people come to their store,
05:14and very often they're using online marketplaces.
05:17Amazon, Facebook, eBay, other different types of online marketplaces.
05:24And guess who is watching?
05:25Law enforcement.
05:27Law enforcement will be watching these marketplaces to find these stolen goods,
05:32to then track down the people fencing it,
05:35to then track down the people who supplied the stolen goods to the fencers.
05:40And we're going to take you all down.
05:42Absolutely.
05:44That is a promise.
05:45It's not a question of if, but when we will take you down.
05:49So if you're out there on the tracks right now thinking you can go ahead
05:53and rip off Union Pacific or BNSF or any of the railroads, think differently.
05:59We're watching you and going to take you down.
06:02If you're receiving these stolen goods, look over your shoulder.
06:06Because the next commissary that you deal with is not going to be an online marketplace,
06:11but it will be a commissary of a jail or a prison.
06:14So, again, I thank the tremendous work of LAPD, the Port Police,
06:19and the Union Pacific Police in making this takedown possible.
06:24There's more to come.
06:26Can you clarify where this was stolen from?
06:30Was it stolen from the tracks in the cargo containers on the trains,
06:33or was it in the port itself?
06:35And I asked that because, you know, a couple years ago,
06:38viral video from Lincoln Heights showed just rampant cargo theft on the trains,
06:42they're from Union Pacific trains.
06:43You need to send a promise to patrol the area more security, more, you know, bigger walls, more fences.
06:51Did that just push the theft elsewhere, or was it happening there?
06:55Okay.
06:57I'm Deputy Chief Hamilton.
06:58So it's a combination.
07:00Because of where we are in this stage of the investigation,
07:02we're not going to be giving out specific information on where the cargo was stolen from
07:07or how it was derived.
07:09We can say with confidence that it was stolen.
07:11The $4.5 million in merchandise, which also includes other items that are not power tools.
07:17So we've seen some e-bikes.
07:19We've seen some household appliances.
07:21We've seen some other things that were also being sold.
07:24All stolen merchandise.
07:26I'll just say different modes of transportation at this point.
07:28And all of the individuals that are involved from the inception of the theft, the provisioning of the theft,
07:36their involvement in the theft, the eventual transport to the fence, the fencing operation,
07:41they are all susceptible to being arrested and charged, and charged vigorously.
07:45It looks like it looks at this point that he had been running it for some time.
07:58We don't know the amount of inventory, stolen inventory, that's come through the locations.
08:02We're in the process of determining that right now.
08:04You look at the idea of how this stuff was stolen.
08:07Again, this goes through a critical, kind of a problem, but somebody apparently had to look
08:13at those containers coming off the ships, whatever, and say, this one, this one, this one.
08:19Are the efforts underway now to find the people on the inside who are marking these particular containers
08:24to where thieves are going up there and saying, we know this one's full of new water, this one's full of Milwaukee tools?
08:31That's part of this investigation.
08:32I will say that we will follow up those leads as well when we determine that someone is involved
08:36in identifying a particular location of cargo, whether it's on the road or on a train.
08:43And when we establish that those individuals are involved in this process, they will be arrested too.
08:48Have you seen an improvement around the Pacific Rail Yard outside Lincoln Heights in the last couple of years?
08:53I'm going to, yeah, I'm going to defer to Union Pacific Police for that.
08:56That was quite the big story at the time.
08:59Yes, Captain Tony Paws with Union Pacific Railroad Police.
09:03Yes, our efforts have given us tremendous improvement on the losses there in that area.
09:09But as you know, burglars are going to move to different locations.
09:13But yes, we've done major improvements that have benefited us for Union Pacific.
09:18Have you seen it move elsewhere?
09:20Pretty much everywhere where these guys can access some of the places to include warehouses
09:26and everything.
09:27Yes, it's moved.
09:28Are you guys involved in any kind of ability with high-tech?
09:36If you want to call it something similar to Apple iPods or something within the cargo to track
09:41to make sure it gets there.
09:42If it doesn't, that sets off alarm bells.
09:45This cargo may have been hit.
09:46We are, but I'd rather not say what exactly we're doing.
09:50I think we're going into sources.
09:51Yes, sir.
09:52How many of you, we've got this one guy.
09:55Do we have any idea how many other people have been arrested at this point where you've
09:58got a target list?
09:59Is it 10, 20, 30, or more?
10:02There's a list that we're looking with the DA's office.
10:04Is this specific to Union Pacific?
10:07I know Union Pacific is here today, but BNSF also getting hit, or is it just Union Pacific?
10:12A little bit of everybody.
10:15How fast are they moving when they're getting this stuff?
10:17I mean, you know, these are block containers for the most part.
10:20How long for the time they decide we're going to hit this thing to the point where they get it
10:24and they get it out?
10:25Are they, what, teams of five or ten people?
10:28They have big rigs standing by.
10:29They're literally all floating it that fast.
10:31It varies, and yes, they are loading it that fast.
10:33Have you had any video evidence or anything with how fast these guys actually work?
10:38Yes, we do.
10:38How fast for a cargo, you see a cargo container?
10:41Minutes.
10:42Minutes.
10:44Two, three minutes.
10:45Two or three minutes for everything in that thing to go out?
10:49Quick.
10:51Are these happening in your rail yards or when the train is actually in motion at the port?
10:58Everywhere.
11:01And I know at the time, a couple years ago, when all this was pretty rampant,
11:05they were saying Union Pacific was understaffed and didn't have enough officers to control all the areas,
11:09and even some of the officers told me that we just can't catch everybody.
11:12Is that still the case?
11:13Are you guys understaffed?
11:16We've bumped our numbers with police officers, but in collaboration with LAPD, port, BNSF,
11:23and Highway Patrol, we've made a huge dent on them.
11:26Sir, do you feel a little fear of that time that you talked about disconnected at all?
11:30No, very separate.
11:31Also, someone had said this could be a long-term time.
11:35Did you feel a little bit fear of the years?
11:36It's still under investigation to figure out how many times or how long time this has been going on with him.
11:42Mr. Hock, I've got a question for you.
11:44We talked about receiving or distributing stolen property.
11:48What are the actual felony statutes involved?
11:51Can you stack charges so these guys aren't looking at two or three or four years?
11:55They're looking at a decade or four at least.
11:57Yes, you can stack charges, if it's different incidents, obviously.
12:02You can even stack certain enhancements on top of that, depending on whether or not the amount involved triggers certain additional enhancements.
12:10The one person that none of these criminals want to ever see is to my left.
12:16It's Deputy District Attorney Alexandra Campbell.
12:19She is our liaison to the Railroad Task Force.
12:22If she ends up with your case, it is not going to go well for that particular criminal.
12:28And she has been very active over the last number of years.
12:33And under my administration, she's been given the green light to work with all law enforcement, to work with Union Pacific,
12:40to work with BNSF and the cargo task force to bring charges against each level of this vertical crime that is occurring.
12:47It's kind of a jurisdictional issue where Union Pacific had its jurisdiction, then LAPD had its jurisdiction next to the tracks.
12:58But it's kind of like a hodgepodge in the mess, right?
13:02Actually, we have probably the best relationships in the country between agencies, federal, state, and local.
13:08And we come together in task force configuration.
13:10So while none of us have the ability with personnel to be able to do the whole job,
13:16we all dedicate certain individuals to that task force, and we get a tremendous amount done,
13:21both from the law enforcement and the prosecution perspective.
13:24So a takeaway from this, if I could, is when you ask the scale of this, everywhere there's a lot of police that are focused on this,
13:33but there are tens of thousands of miles of track and then everything that comes in at the port.
13:38And you just think of the transport system and getting goods out to people across the nation.
13:43So many opportunities.
13:45That's why it's so important that the public step up.
13:47And if they're aware of this, to let us know, and that way we can target our resources to where they need to go.
13:53We're all paying for this at the end of the day.
13:55So as was stated earlier, it's not a victimless crime.
13:58Each and every one of us is a victim.
14:00Where did the arrest happen?
14:01Sorry?
14:02Where did the arrest happen?
14:04Montebello?
14:04Montebello and Huntington Park.
14:06Yeah, Montebello and Huntington Park.
14:07Were there employees?
14:09Are there people working there at the time?
14:10You can take that.
14:12Yes, there was.
14:13We had a few employees working there, but the main culprit was the guy who we arrested, Dijon Park.
14:17Did you question any of the people in there?
14:19They were questioned, yes.
14:21And let go?
14:22Yes, we let them go now, but they could be arrested at a fair day.
14:26Captain, the online services that they sell these examples on things like that,
14:31you mentioned there's cooperation between them and your agencies.
14:34How is that working out at this point?
14:37Are they, you know, being seen as, okay, we're going to sell off of Amazon or whatever,
14:41and Amazon looks and says, wait a minute, the price here is too good.
14:45This stuff is obviously hot.
14:47And do you guys immediately get a call?
14:48The online platforms have been very, we're working with them a lot.
14:52And sometimes on the online platforms, the prices are similar to what you see on regular online platforms.
14:58So where you see the discounts are the regular stores,
15:01where they're actually selling the stolen items at the regular stores,
15:03like in Montebello and in Huntington Park.
15:05If you're watching this store, it'd be cheaper than going to Montebello.
15:09Say it again?
15:10If you were to watch into this store, you would have seen prices much lower than Montebello.
15:14Absolutely, absolutely.
15:15So which online platforms, like eBay, Opera?
15:18Well, we're working with all the online platforms,
15:20so I don't want to identify a specific online platform, but we're working with all of them.
15:24So these individuals involved with the theft and the fencing,
15:28are they all part of a transnational criminal group?
15:31Some of them are.
15:33We've had several cases where they've been part of the transnational groups also.
15:37So this investigation is going to obviously spread out,
15:41and we're going to try and see who is also involved.
15:43One more question?
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