PD: 16 involved in Valley-wide organized store thefts

PHOENIX - Phoenix Police say they've put a major Valley-wide shoplifting ring out of business.

Detectives described the 16 crew ring of thieves as an organized group of "retail rip-off crews" hitting stores, major malls, outlet stores and strip centers across the Valley from Mesa to Glendale and stealing tens of thousands of dollars in merchandise.

Police arrested 11 of them Wednesday and are searching for five additional members.

Among those arrested are Shari Acosta, Marcela Arias, Yolva Gonzalez Corral, Octavio Corral, Josefina Felix, Marci Flores, Crystal Garcia, Elvira Gonzales, Sonia Guajardo-Garcia, Priscilla Palma, and Shania Williams.

The suspects are facing are variety of charges, depending on their role, that include assisting in a criminal syndicate, assisting in a criminal syndicate with a minor, fraudulent schemes and artifices, organized retail theft, trafficking in stolen property, misconduct involving weapons and threatening and intimidating.

Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said the "shoplifters" would work in groups of two or three. The first group would pose as browsers while checking out the surveillance system and looking for unsuspecting store workers.

"Just a first glance can tell you what's there and what's not there," Montgomery said.

The second group would then walk into the store with shopping bags. Some were caught on surveillance video quickly grabbing merchandise out of drawers and counters then stuffing them in the bag.

"After the theft would happen we would go contact employees and they'd have no idea that their stuff had just been ripped off. They were that quick and that smooth," said Sgt. Aimee Smith with the Phoenix Police Department.

Montgomery said by the time security guards would catch up to the thieves, the bags had already been passed to a third group and sometimes a fourth group that would walk them out to a waiting vehicle.

The suspects would then go back into the mall and hit another store in the same fashion.

Once the merchandise was out of the store it was taken several different properties where it would be stockpiled for sale.

Montgomery said some of it was sold to pre-arranged customers called "payans" who would pay 25 percent of the price or less, or it was sold to clients for a flat rate; $5 per shirt or $10 for jeans.

Montgomery said some of the items were also sold on eBay or taken to Mexico to be re-sold for 1/3 of the retail price.

"If you're purchasing something on the internet and it seems like a really great deal, you ought to ask yourself why," Montgomery said in a Wednesday news conference.

Smith said those arrested "admitted that it's been going on for six years" and detectives have discovered there are many more groups out there just like this one.

Officials said the primary malls victimized by the organization were Anthem Outlets, Desert Sky Mall, Arrowhead Town Center, San Tan Village Mall, Desert Ridge, Scottsdale Fashion Square, and Chandler Fashion Center.

The main stores targeted were the Children's Place, the GAP, Victoria's Secret, Ralph Lauren Polo, Dillard's, Sears, Hollister, Nike Outlet, Disney, Carter's, Justice, and Banana Republic.

A total of 3,495 individual items of property believed to be stolen were recovered, valued at $86,771.85, authorities said.

The arrests were made in cooperation with the Phoenix, Glendale and Mesa police departments, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office and private security officers Macerich Management Systems.