Organized crime ring believed to be targeting trains in Arizona
You thought the days of robbing trains were something out of an old western? Think again.
What we know:
An organized crime ring is targeting trains right here in Arizona. This weekend, investigators say they tracked down three suspects accused of robbing a train in northern Arizona back in January.
The suspects led police on an 80-mile chase before they were finally caught.
It's part of a growing trend we've seen in recent months, and it turns out the suspects are all after a very specific cargo: Nike shoes.
A certain BNSF line has been targeted multiple times over the last year. Over $2 million worth of Nike shoes have been stolen between California and northern Arizona.
What they're saying:
The Department of Homeland Security is going after these modern-day long riders, with over 20 arrests in the last year from multiple different heists.
"The bad guys are good at a few different things, and one of them is return on investment. They have found a niche. They have found a sweet spot. They found the hole in the fence," said vice president of operations at CargoNet, Keith Lewis.
CargoNet is the federal government's lead when it comes to theft data.
"Some of these products are better than cash, easier to move, easier to launder, because some planning and logistics have to go into it," Lewis said.
The shoes being stolen aren't just your typical running shoes.
In a Jan. 14 heist, they stole over 1,900 pairs of shoes. Many of them were unreleased Air Jordans.
Train robbery in northern Arizona targeting Nike shoes leads to 80-mile police chase
Two vehicles were tracked down in connection to a northern Arizona train robbery and one car led police on an 80-mile chase that ended near the California-Arizona state line.
'It's somebody who's got some actionable intelligence'
So, we asked, is it an inside job?
"It's somebody who's got some actionable intelligence to know that on that particular train car, on that particular set of train cars, a lot of those containers may have that particular brand in them. A lot of it is some inside information," Lewis said.
The organized ring has thieves getting on the train and getting inside the containers, many times in areas where the train slows down. They use multiple getaway cars that are trailing behind them.
"They're cutting the airline, which puts the train into an emergency. Of course, the conductor and the engineer on the head-end of the train, they're not sure what's causing it. So they're required, the conductor is required, to walk back and find the problem," said Scott Jones, SMART-TD transit union Safety and Legislative Director (SLD) for Arizona.
Not only can an emergency stop easily lead to derailment, but locomotive engineers, like Jones, who rode the line for 28 years, could be completely blindsided.
"If it's 2:30 in the morning. You're on a three-and-a-half-mile-long train. You're out in the desert somewhere. It's very dark, and you're on the opposite side of where the perpetrators happen to be working. You don't see them, and you happen to walk in on them, and I can only imagine I'd be afraid of what would happen then," Jones said.
For now, there is not a protocol in place for conductors and engineers. That is what the unions are asking for, as these railroad workers are standing right in the middle of a massive theft ring.
BNSF releases a statement:
"BNSF has robust security protocols, and our police department is focused on preventing these incidents on our network. We work hard to protect our customers' freight from pickup to delivery and have security measures in place to help ensure these goods arrive safely. We are working with federal, state, local, and tribal police departments to coordinate our approach to disrupting criminal activity and arresting offenders. It's essential that the entire criminal justice system, including policymakers, district attorneys and judges, focus on this crime trend and help to ensure these criminals are held responsible and prosecuted. These are not victimless crimes, particularly when many of these packages include much-needed medicine, food, and critical supplies necessary for everyday life."
How's this happening?:
"It’s very unsettling because you're there by yourself, unarmed. You have really no defense. Hopefully they get what they want and leave you alone," said Steven Thomas, a locomotive engineer with BNSF.
Thomas still rides the California to Arizona line to this day.
"Almost not a day goes by that there's not trains broke into," Thomas said.
Eddie Hall, National President of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), says a contributing factor is the extensive length of trains these days.
"Because of the train length, that they are now three and a half miles long, it's going to take the conductor 40–45 minutes just to get back there so we can see what's going on," Hall said.
Giving this organized theft ring enough time to get away.
"You have to have a working knowledge of the brake system to know which ones the cut," Thomas said.
The cut lines send the train into an emergency stop, and it’s up to the conductor to find out why.
"As of late, you start walking back, you start thinking, ‘what if we are being robbed? What if these guys are back there?’ They have no regard for you, so you can very well not go home that night," Thomas said.
The landscape between California and Arizona has long stretches of flat desert, where the train travels upwards of 70 miles per hour. The speed slows dramatically while climbing in elevation.
"They climb these hills eight or nine miles an hour. These guys robbing the trains, they can get on these trains at those speeds, so they have a lot of opportunity now where in the past they didn't," Hall said.
Court documents state the criminals use electric saws and bolt cutters to cut the locks off the cargo, then use stolen box trucks to take off. They disperse them into multiple getaway cars.
The train keeps moving, now with cargo doors wide open, putting everyone on the track in jeopardy.
"The doors will swing open and they can take out the part of the windshield, side windows, visors, mirrors, and just spray the cab with glass," Thomas explained.
In the last year alone, the top rail lines in the U.S. and Canada had 65,000 thefts, according to CargoNet. Those are just the ones that were reported.
Of the people arrested in the last year, eight are Mexican nationals from Sinaloa, reportedly in the U.S. illegally.