A theft of designer clothes hidden inside suitcases from a shopping mall has been linked to a huge $100million (£77million) theft ring involving the Mexican cartel.
CCTV showed four men entering the Katy Mills Mall in Katy, Texas, wearing earpieces. They later fled with around $5,000 (£3,800) of merchandise from designer stores Tommy Hilfiger and Guess, which was hidden inside suitcases. The investigating officer tracked the car the men used to a home and a search found three bags of clothes, Mexican IDs and airline tickets, but the investigation took an unexpected turn when police recognised one of the suspects in relation to a larger theft.
He was linked to a large criminal enterprise under investigation involving the Mexican cartel and a huge nationwide ring involving thefts of goods worth $100million, ABC reported.
The search warrant served on the home read: “These boosters travel from major cities to major cities and rent Airbnb homes and typically stay for approximately a week before moving on to another city.
“Previous search warrants at Airbnbs around the nation resulted in the recovery of hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen retail merchandise.”
The warrant says 98 people have been linked to a “South American Cartel Organization”, believed to be Mexican. Investigators say they are believed to be linked to the massive thefts across the US.
It comes as the death of one drug cartel boss and the capture of another sparked a chilling wave of murders in the Mexican border city of Tijuana this week, with eleven homicides reported to have taken place in just 12 hours.
On Wednesday afternoon it was reported local Sinaloa Cartel boss Rodolfo López Arellano, also known as El Cabo 30 or El Solecito, was gunned down .
López Arellano was said to have been an operative for Los Cabos , one of the Sinaloa Cartel’s armed wings, and was shot eight times in the town of San Miguel Topilejo, south of Mexico City.
López Arellano was killed at point-blank range on a property where he organised clandestine cockfights.
Los Cabos used to be allied with the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG) before siding with the Sinaloa Cartel in 2019, local reports suggest.
On Thursday federal and state authorities captured local Sinaloa Cartel boss Mario Fabricio ‘N’, also known as Mario Bros, in the eastern part of Tijuana.
MILENIO reports he was believed to be the leader of the local Sinaloa Cartel faction that is loyal to Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada, former right hand man of infamous Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquín ‘ El Chapo ‘ Guzmán.
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