Stepped-up vigilance and the concerted efforts of a wide range of law enforcement agencies working with railroad officials to heighten security and reduce pilferage from trains along San Bernardino County’s rail corridor by both sophisticated criminal organizations and opportunistic bandits has continued now past the dog days of summer. Inroads on that criminality have been made, but the thefts continue, it seems, unabated.
Authorities over the last three weeks have collared at least six individuals involved in stealing substantial quantities of merchandise from rail cars. At the same time, it is believed, an equal number of thieves involved in those same incidents were able to elude capture.
On Monday, August 24 at around 7.a.m., according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, a group of people of at least four people were seen breaking into a Burlington Northern Santa Fe boxcar in the unincorporated San Bernardino County area east of Barstow near Daggett, and were unloading boxed items into vehicles near the spot.
En route to the location of the reported thefts, a deputy encountered a van matching a description of one of the vehicles into which the stolen merchandise was being loaded heading west on the 40 Freeway.
When the deputies conducted a traffic stop, a suspect, later identified as Leonardo Martinez Navarre, 29, of Perris, sprung from the van and attempted to run into the desert. Deputies gave chase, and the foot pursuit ended with Navarre in custody.
On Saturday, August 22, sheriff’s department investigators came across an abandoned vehicle in which boxes of Brooks running shoes worth $123,000 were found. The sheriff’s department recovered the shoes but did not arrest any individuals in connection with the theft.
Previously, on Monday, August 17, deputies came across a van with $28,000 worth of Lego sets which had been removed from a rail car.
While no arrests were immediately made in that case, the vehicles are sources of clues which, upon the application of forensic analysis, may lead to those who had stolen the merchandise.
Authorities say there has been a persistent pattern of highly organized
thefts involving international criminals targeting railroad cargo cars in San Bernardino County and elsewhere in San Bernardino County going back over the last 18 months. .
According to the Association of American Railroads, “In recent years, organized criminal groups have increasingly targeted the nation’s railroads using sophisticated tactics and technology to commit cargo theft.”
Beginning last fall, an intensified crackdown on railroad cargo theft has been pursued by a multitude of agencies and entities, including the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad Police as well as the FBI and Department of Homeland Security.
In Southern California in particular, investigators have learned that at least some of the perpetrators have previously succeeded because they had inside information about railroad company operations.
Individuals linked to cargo theft rings who have specific knowledge of the placing and timing of the shipment by rail of high-value goods is a common vulnerability and a major factor in the success of criminals who target rail cars for theft. Railroad police, the sheriff’s department, the San Bernardino Police Department, the Colton Police Department, the Rialto Police Department and the FBI have information that organized crime is employing individuals who assume relatively low-ranking and even temporary positions with rail companies or at rail terminals and rail yards to obtain information about what goods are being transported on which trains and in specific rail cars, together with information about when and where the trains are to remain stationary for an extended period.
Other vulnerabilities consist of spots where moving trains must slow considerably or on sidings where a line of rail cars full of merchandise can remain sitting for as much as a week before they are coupled with an engine or engines to travel to their destination.
Trains reduce speed considerably at curves or bends in the rail line, such as at certain spots along and at the bottom of the slope descending from the Cajon Pass near Devore. Trains are obliged to decelerate to navigate the sharp, sweeping curves along the track course, as taking the turns at too high of a speed poses a severe tipping hazard for heavy, multi-platform freight cars. Both the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Company and the Union Pacific Railroad Company impose strict speed reductions for engineers driving trains at that location. This affords those on foot determined to jump onto a passing train an opportunity to do so, albeit with a certain degree of difficulty and some danger. Once on the trains, the thieves can break locks and seals on individual cars to gain entry to them and liberate their contents.
Barstow’s 600-acre Burlington Northern Santa Fe classification yard boasts 48 tracks and is the main hub for almost all freight traffic to and from Southern California. As such, the area in and around it is a bottleneck for eastbound and westbound traffic, and trains may hold there for crew change, fueling, or classification. East of Barstow, Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific operations include sidings and classification areas where locomotive‑less freight cars can wait for many hours or even several days for a locomotive to attach to them to take them eastward. These unguarded and stationary cars make attractive targets for those intent on stealing their contents.
-Mark Gutglueck