What was perhaps the chance spotting of an operation by a sophisticated gang of domestic and international criminals specializing in the theft of cargo from freight trains resulted in three members of a team consisting of some dozen-and-a-quarter thieves being taken into custody in Devore on May 5.
Around 11 a.m. on Tuesday May 5 the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department received a call reporting that roughly 15 people had been observed riding on a Burlington Northern Santa Fe cargo train on the tracks near Glen Helen Parkway and Cajon Boulevard.
It is not known whether the report was from a citizen who by chance spotted what appeared to be an anomaly or whether an individual hired by one of the railroad companies to keep a watch on the trains transiting that stretch of the rail line descending into San Bernardino Valley from the High Desert phoned the warning in.
Over the last eight to ten months, 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.
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.”
In Southern California in particular, investigators have learned that the perpetrators have previously succeeded because they had inside information about railroad company operations.
Railroad industry sources and law enforcement professionals report that a substantial amount of railroad cargo theft takes place as a consequence so-called “inside jobs,” that is, with the assistance of those who work with the railroads themselves or as part of the rail infrastructure and support network. Individual 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.
Another vulnerability consists of spots where moving trains must slow considerably at curves or bends in the rail line, as is the case at the bottom of the slope descending from the Cajon Pass near Devore. Trains are obliged to decelerate to navigate the sharp, sweeping curve there, as taking the turn 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 enforce impose strict speed reductions for engineers driving trains at that location. This affords those on foot determined to jump on to 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.
The highgraded investigations have revealed a substantial international component among the perpetrators, and occasionally evidence that those involved in the rings have immediate or removed family members who have found work with the railroad companies, rail terminals or rail yards.
As a consequence of some of the known thieves being foreign citizens, many of them in the country illegally, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security and its subdivision, the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, have become involved.
According to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, ‘The [May 5, 2026] incident location is a high crime area for train cargo theft.”
The deputies who had been dispatched to that location arrived after the thieves had jumped from the train at a spot where it is still obliged to move at a slower speed but before they had left the area. Moments later a vehicle moving at a high rate of speed drove past them. Two deputies in separate vehicles took off after those fleeing. The driver took evasive action and initially refused to pull over, but then stopped at the side of the 215 Freeway.
“Approximately ten subjects fled from the vehicle on foot,” according to the sheriff’s department.
Fernando Barrza, 19, of San Bernardino was quickly collared, and deputies also managed to overtake Rodrigo Luna Arredondo, 32, of San Bernardino. All but one of the others who had emerged from the vehicle scattered upon making it across the freeway, and were not caught.
Another of those fleeing, whose identity has not been released, “was struck by a vehicle while running across the freeway,” according to the department. The man survived, but was taken to a hospital, where as of earlier this week he last week he yet remains.
According the department items taken from the train were in the vehicle.
Barrza and Arredondo were booked on suspicion of possession of stolen property and criminal conspiracy.
Bail was set at a relatively low $30,000, a ploy to see if an effort to free the pair on bond will take place, whereupon investigators will be able to learn more about the ring.