A months-long investigation into an organized retail crime ring ended final week with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Division recovering 160 pallets of stolen merchandise — valued at about $1.4 million — from a warehouse, officers stated Monday.
The Moreno Valley Sheriff’s Station Particular Enforcement Group had been investigating the trailer cargo theft ring since February and served a search warrant on the warehouse off of Freeway 74 on Thursday night time in an unincorporated space known as Good Hope.
Contained in the warehouse, deputies discovered pallets stacked excessive with stolen items, together with meals and industrial-grade instruments, the division stated.
Retail theft has been an rising downside within the final 12 months or so, prompting state and native officers to reply by creating job forces and proposing laws to impose harsher penalties on repeat offenders and permit retailers to file restraining orders in opposition to repeat culprits.
Truck driver Rajdeep Singh, 34, was detained on the Good Hope location in the course of the search and arrested on suspicion of possession of heroin and drug paraphernalia.
“That is an ongoing investigation, and deputies are working to find out Singh’s involvement and figuring out extra suspects,” the division stated in a press release.
