Rolex in major crime...again!

[pwrslider]

This news story just broke today in the SF Bay Area (ca.)

It's amazing that almost every major property crime bust....Rolex is mentioned!

I think this may be due to the ever present MSRP price increase....lower the price...reduce crime! And that's my platform if Obama selects me as a running mate!





Using tool stores and luxury homes as fronts, a pair of San Jose crime families ran multi-million dollar empires of stolen men's razors, Oil of Olay, Pepcid AC and teeth brighteners like they were a shadow Safeway or a criminal Costco, according to law enforcement authorities.
The Le and Vo organizations are accused of buying truckloads of stolen merchandise from crews of freelance shoplifters, repackaging the products and then re-selling them throughout the U.S at an enormous profit . . . until this week.

The giant fencing organizations came tumbling down Wednesday when a joint task force arrested 17 people, including 11 in San Jose, on charges of federal money laundering and interstate transportation of stolen goods. They confiscated six semi-trucks loaded with $5.5 million in stolen property and - along with pallets of Tylenol and Oil of Olay - seized $140,000 in cash, gold bars, Mercedes, diamonds, and Rolex watches.

The investigation was titled "Operation Norcal Shortdate," referring to Northern California and the slang for a product about to expire. Officials said the busts had brought down major local players in the $30 billion black market in stolen retail merchandise.

"This wasn't where they were ripping off product and selling it from the back of a truck on some street corner, these were very organized operations," said San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis. Davis announced the immediate fruits of the ongoing investigation at a press conference attended by Mayor Chuck Reed and U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello at police headquarters this morning. Davis said the operation showed that property crime would be never be overlooked or prioritized lowly in San Jose.
The complex case grew out of a meeting in January 2006 between Victor Woods, a loss protection executive for Safeway and a former Oakland cop, and Chief Davis.

Woods explained to the chief how his stores had been regularly hit by a "booster crew" - a team of shoplifters which regularly stole mass quantities of products.

When Safeway turned over some of the boosters they had caught to police, Davis then launched an investigation which eventually led to an undercover agent pretending like he was a member of a booster crew.

It was a reverse sting operation.

Officer Jesus Mendoza, who has since moved out of undercover, told the Mercury News he met the fencing operators once or twice a week in dark and deserted parking lots in strip malls.

At first they were suspicious, Mendoza said, asking how he got their number. Was it such and such a guy, they asked. It sure was, Mendoza told them.

Mendoza would bring a trunk filled with products he had received from Safeway and other stores. The families were finicky - they liked products with lengthy expiration dates: Mach III razors, Zantac, Benadryl. They paid cash, on the spot.

The pretend shoplifter sold the two families products for three months .

The agent and the department's Narcotics Covert Investigations unit slowly unraveled the surprising breadth of the operations.

The "booster" thieves are not directly related to the crime organizations. They are independent bandits who hit store after store on a routine basis, stealing a variety of products from Safeway, Target, Walgreen's, Longs Drugs and Savemart. They might stealthily stuff handfuls of Claritin into their clothes or boldly make off with shopping carts full of items without paying.

They would contact the Vo and Le organizations to "fence" the merchandise, receiving 25 cents on the dollar. The families were not cooperating but acted as "friendly competitors," according to officers John Barg and Doug Gerbrandt, the lead case agents.

The Vo organization worked their operation out of two San Jose storefronts - JV Tool and Wholesale on Senter Road and on Old Bayshore Highway.

On the surface the businesses were tool shops. But in the back, there were giant warehouses of locally stolen merchandise, repackaged and organized, ready to be shipped.

The organization would regularly ship out four to six pallets of stolen products a month to various locations in Utah, Florida and New York. Police estimated that each pallet is worth approximately $120,000 in retail value.

The Le organization operated primarily out of homes, including within the luxury Silver Creek Estates in San Jose.

Eventually the products - some of which may have become unsafe by improper storage - were resold on the Internet, in flea markets or ended up at legitimate distribution centers that sometimes resold the products back to the chains that had been robbed in the first place.

When police realized that the products were being shipped throughout the nation, they teamed up with the IRS and the FBI, forming the task force that eventually unraveled the case together.

"These cases are great once you see them come to fruition," Mendoza said. "It's a great thing to know that you contribute to having an impact on crime in San Jose."

[scottschoe]

Fun read...who knew there was such a market for razors.

[walds11]

Anything to make money I guess.

Originally Posted by scottschoe

Fun read...who knew there was such a market for razors.

[DAZ666]

Originally Posted by scottschoe

Fun read...who knew there was such a market for razors.

That was interesting. The sales of razors is huge! Figure from 2002. Have a read...

Boston-based consumer products make Gillette Co. reported double-digit increases in net sales and net income for the second quarter and the six months ended June 30 on the success of new products including the Mach3Turbo and Passion Venus shaving systems.

Net sales for the quarter grew 11 percent to $2.25 billion from $2.02 billion in the second quarter of 2002. The increase stemmed from strong gains in all regions except Latin America, where economic difficulties continued, the company said in a statement.

Favorable foreign exchange, primarily in Europe, contributed 6 percentage points of the net sales gain. The sales growth also was driven by a double-digit increase in advertising spending, Gillette said.

Net income for the second quarter rose 15 percent to $338 million from the prior year's $293 million, or an increase of 18 percent.

For the six months ended June 30, net sales grew 13 percent to $4.23 billion, compared with $3.76 billion in 2002, Net income for the six months was $601 million, 16 percent above $516 million in the previous year, or an increase of 18 percent.

"Our second-quarter and six-month results showed sales and share gains across our categories," said chairman and CEO James M. Kilts in a statement. "These results were fueled by the success of our new products and the momentum of our established franchises, along with broad-based margin improvement resulting from cost-saving initiatives."

[SPACE-DWELLER]

Interesting read, Steve!

Thanks for sharing!

[cmcm3]

Razors are such a ******* rip-off I say good on them! Its bloody Gillette who are the real thieves!!!

[oneillba]

Originally Posted by cmcm3

Razors are such a ******* rip-off I say good on them! Its bloody Gillette who are the real thieves!!!

Time to buy a good old straight edge razor and learn to use it properly. Honestly, I've been tempted, but the learning curve is pretty steep! They don't call them "cutthroats" for nothing!

[GMTII Owner]

It's amazing the thought process some thieves go through to create these rings to make money the wrong way. Now, if they would apply these thoughts to making money the old fashion way, they might make something of themselves rather than being thugs.

Thanks for sharing.

John

[Oscar]

Originally Posted by pwrslider

This news story just broke today in the SF Bay Area (ca.)

It's amazing that almost every major property crime bust....Rolex is mentioned!

I think this may be due to the ever present MSRP price increase....lower the price...reduce crime! And that's my platform if Obama selects me as a running mate!





Using tool stores and luxury homes as fronts, a pair of San Jose crime families ran multi-million dollar empires of stolen men's razors, Oil of Olay, Pepcid AC and teeth brighteners like they were a shadow Safeway or a criminal Costco, according to law enforcement authorities.
The Le and Vo organizations are accused of buying truckloads of stolen merchandise from crews of freelance shoplifters, repackaging the products and then re-selling them throughout the U.S at an enormous profit . . . until this week.

The giant fencing organizations came tumbling down Wednesday when a joint task force arrested 17 people, including 11 in San Jose, on charges of federal money laundering and interstate transportation of stolen goods. They confiscated six semi-trucks loaded with $5.5 million in stolen property and - along with pallets of Tylenol and Oil of Olay - seized $140,000 in cash, gold bars, Mercedes, diamonds, and Rolex watches.

The investigation was titled "Operation Norcal Shortdate," referring to Northern California and the slang for a product about to expire. Officials said the busts had brought down major local players in the $30 billion black market in stolen retail merchandise.

"This wasn't where they were ripping off product and selling it from the back of a truck on some street corner, these were very organized operations," said San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis. Davis announced the immediate fruits of the ongoing investigation at a press conference attended by Mayor Chuck Reed and U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello at police headquarters this morning. Davis said the operation showed that property crime would be never be overlooked or prioritized lowly in San Jose.
The complex case grew out of a meeting in January 2006 between Victor Woods, a loss protection executive for Safeway and a former Oakland cop, and Chief Davis.

Woods explained to the chief how his stores had been regularly hit by a "booster crew" - a team of shoplifters which regularly stole mass quantities of products.

When Safeway turned over some of the boosters they had caught to police, Davis then launched an investigation which eventually led to an undercover agent pretending like he was a member of a booster crew.

It was a reverse sting operation.

Officer Jesus Mendoza, who has since moved out of undercover, told the Mercury News he met the fencing operators once or twice a week in dark and deserted parking lots in strip malls.

At first they were suspicious, Mendoza said, asking how he got their number. Was it such and such a guy, they asked. It sure was, Mendoza told them.

Mendoza would bring a trunk filled with products he had received from Safeway and other stores. The families were finicky - they liked products with lengthy expiration dates: Mach III razors, Zantac, Benadryl. They paid cash, on the spot.

The pretend shoplifter sold the two families products for three months .

The agent and the department's Narcotics Covert Investigations unit slowly unraveled the surprising breadth of the operations.

The "booster" thieves are not directly related to the crime organizations. They are independent bandits who hit store after store on a routine basis, stealing a variety of products from Safeway, Target, Walgreen's, Longs Drugs and Savemart. They might stealthily stuff handfuls of Claritin into their clothes or boldly make off with shopping carts full of items without paying.

They would contact the Vo and Le organizations to "fence" the merchandise, receiving 25 cents on the dollar. The families were not cooperating but acted as "friendly competitors," according to officers John Barg and Doug Gerbrandt, the lead case agents.

The Vo organization worked their operation out of two San Jose storefronts - JV Tool and Wholesale on Senter Road and on Old Bayshore Highway.

On the surface the businesses were tool shops. But in the back, there were giant warehouses of locally stolen merchandise, repackaged and organized, ready to be shipped.

The organization would regularly ship out four to six pallets of stolen products a month to various locations in Utah, Florida and New York. Police estimated that each pallet is worth approximately $120,000 in retail value.

The Le organization operated primarily out of homes, including within the luxury Silver Creek Estates in San Jose.

Eventually the products - some of which may have become unsafe by improper storage - were resold on the Internet, in flea markets or ended up at legitimate distribution centers that sometimes resold the products back to the chains that had been robbed in the first place.

When police realized that the products were being shipped throughout the nation, they teamed up with the IRS and the FBI, forming the task force that eventually unraveled the case together.

"These cases are great once you see them come to fruition," Mendoza said. "It's a great thing to know that you contribute to having an impact on crime in San Jose."

Steve,

Crooks are Crooks, no matter which country they're from..........A good operation overall.

[BigHat]

Originally Posted by scottschoe

Fun read...who knew there was such a market for razors.

Have you priced the damn cartridges lately? Feel like I'm buying gold -- $4 for a razor blade? Won't be long before they include a SS Cosmo with a 24-pack.

[Gaijin]

You are right. Razors are a rip off. Got sick aand tired of paying so much for them. Finally bought a $50 electric shaver. Never going back to blades.

[SPACE-DWELLER]

Originally Posted by KansaiVet

You are right. Razors are a rip off. Got sick aand tired of paying so much for them. Finally bought a $50 electric shaver. Never going back to blades.

Exact same thing here, Tom!

I have a strong beard and I ruined a blade in two days. I finally bought a Braun Shaver ("SmartControl3"). It cuts my beard like butter!

[dsimon9]

Were the Rolex watches real or fake? I wonder if they took them to their local AD for authentication.


Dex

[2careless]

Whoa! guys this is great opportunity! I wonder if the local police dept conduct public auctions of stolen goods that nobody claimed? You might find some real gems there!

[RW16610]

Originally Posted by cmcm3

Razors are such a ******* rip-off I say good on them! Its bloody Gillette who are the real thieves!!!

Haha seen them, lucky for me I use an electric shaver.

[pwrslider]

Originally Posted by 2careless

Whoa! guys this is great opportunity! I wonder if the local police dept conduct public auctions of stolen goods that nobody claimed? You might find some real gems there!

uhhhhhhhhhh.. the feds were involved.....don't think we'll ever see em again!

[c70convertible]

good read- very interesting

[shoppy]

Interesting read, thanks for the info.