Thread: AZ: Smugglers scour parking lots near Interstate 10 for SUVs

Smugglers scour parking lots near Interstate 10 for SUVs

by Megan Boehnke - Mar. 27, 2010 07:25 AM
The Arizona Republic

Even though vehicle thefts in Chandler dropped 60 percent in the past five years, police have been fighting the theft of large trucks and SUVs from big parking lots along Interstate 10.

The problem, according to detectives, is linked to the violent drug cartels in Mexico.

The process works like this: A bigwig involved in cartels in Mexico calls local thieves and gives them an order for vehicles. The local criminals swipe the trucks - typically Ford F-Series pickups, Chevy Silverados or Dodge Rams - and leave them at drop points along the interstate.

Then, Mexican nationals pick up the trucks and drive them across the border.

Once in Mexico, the trucks are modified and then used to smuggle narcotics or people into the United States.

After a cartel's operatives smuggle the drugs or people past the border, they will again meet up with thieves who then drive the cars and trucks back to Mexico. There, the vehicles are retrofitted to once again smuggle drugs and people back across the border.

The problem, Detective Nathan Duncan said, has been on-going across the Valley and along the interstate corridor for the last two to three years.

"A lot of them are only being used for only one trip, and they move on to the next one," Duncan said. "We've seen some (trucks) that go out of here with some pretty serious modifications - making brake lights and taillights inoperable or inoperable by a toggle switch - and some vehicles come back in same condition minus the seats with minor body damage. We call it desert pinstriping, or damage to the paint on the exterior from going through the bushes."

The trucks that aren't found before they reach the border are often dumped on the Tohono O'odham Reservation in southern Arizona.

The problem, though, is not limited to Chandler, according to Duncan and others on the auto-theft unit.

The team works closely with a Department of Public Safety task force and other agencies to track trends and intelligence about the networks stealing the cars.

"I could tell you the hot spots in Goodyear, hot spots in Tempe. If I have something going on in Phoenix, I could call a guy right now and it would be done," Duncan said. "Networking and intel sharing between agencies has been a huge success for us.

"I would say 80 percent of our decrease of auto thefts is strictly networking."

Chandler has seen a 60 percent drop in automobile thefts over the last five years, including a 40 percent decrease in 2009, compared with the prior year.

Last year, when a truck went missing from a parking lot in Chandler, the team recognized the location as a favorite spot for a particular theft ring. The unit headed over to the Fry's Electronics in Tempe, where the group was also known to operate, and caught the thieves red-handed.

The detectives blocked in the thieves, who were breaking into a vehicle, from the front and the back. With nowhere to go, the thieves panicked and rammed the car into Sgt. Kurt Houser's vehicle.

After their arrest, the city saw an immediate and noticeable decrease in auto thefts, Duncan said. And the arrests, he added, wouldn't have been possible without sharing information with other agencies.

"We have one person assigned (to the task force), and I pretty much associate with them on a daily basis," Duncan said. "We meet monthly to discuss trends and certain details, and we do projects with them once a month and daily e-mails about certain vehicles that are outstanding."

The thefts affect mostly the cities along Interstate 10. Vehicles turn up missing from Intel, Honeywell, Chandler Fashion Center and other parking lots at places where drivers are likely to stay inside for long periods of time.

That, detectives said, gives the thieves plenty of time to steal the vehicles and head south.

www.azcentral.com

That is a big thing here.

My buddies truck got swiped last year. They found it with the back seat stripped out of it and all his stuff gone, of coarse.