10/27/2022
Federal investigators allege that Yoslany Leyva Del Sol, Ledier Machin Andino, and Delvis L. Fuentes, all from the Miami area, stole $9 million in meat and equipment from beef and pork packaging plants in the Midwest. They were arrested Oct. 20 in Florida on charges related to thefts this month.
Authorities had spent more than a week tracking them across multiple states as a string of thefts occurred, according to a criminal complaint filed Oct. 21 by Homeland Security Investigations, the Department of Homeland Security’s investigative arm. When police detained them, they found pallets of stolen ham and pork in their trucks.
Though those thefts amounted to about $730,000 in meat, Homeland Security investigators said in a news release that the scheme had been much broader, operating since June 2021 and reaching $9 million in losses for various companies.
“We look forward to fighting the case,” Del Sol’s attorney, Alfredo Izaguirre, told The Washington Post. He said Del Sol would plead not guilty.
Attorneys for Fuentes and Andino did not immediately return emails from The Washington Post seeking comment.
In what authorities called a “sophisticated organized criminal enterprise,” the three men allegedly drove semi-trailers around Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota and Wisconsin, stealing pallets of frozen meat and loading them in their tractor-trailers.
Court filings did not say what the men were alleged to have done with the stolen beef and pork or whether they resold it.
Cellphone data led authorities to the trio in June, after the frozen beef was stolen from the Nebraska plant, according to the criminal complaint. Phones registered to Fuentes, Del Sol and Andino were at the site of the theft, and surveillance footage showed them at a truck yard in the area.
Federal investigators, with a warrant, began tracking their phones. Two weeks ago, the men left Miami and drove three semi-tractors to Tennessee, according to the complaint.
On Oct. 13, they allegedly crossed into Iowa, where authorities covertly put GPS trackers on their trucks and watched as the trio slowly drove around trailer-truck lots. The next day, the men reached Sioux Falls, S.D.
That night, 19 pallets of ham were stolen from a company in Sioux Falls. The GPS trackers allegedly put Del Sol’s trailer at the site of the theft, as well as a spot where police later found the stolen trailer empty.
The next morning, the men allegedly drove to Worthington, Minn., where a similar pattern played out. First there was a theft from a warehouse of two semi-tractors and three pallet jacks, then later that night, two trailers from a meat company — each containing 22 pallets of pork worth $150,000.
Fuentes, Del Sol and Andino’s tracker pinged at the warehouse and the meat company, authorities contend, then showed them heading toward Miami.No, you still can’t bring marijuana through a TSA checkpoint
They were driving about 48 hours later, when Fuentes was stopped by a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer around 2 a.m. on Oct. 18. The officer allegedly found 19 pallets of ham in the trailer, in boxes with labels that matched the products that had been stolen in Sioux Falls.
Fuentes handed over a bill of lading, meant to prove his lawful receipt of the goods, but the officer recognized it as a fake – the state of origin and transporting company listed were wrong, and it was only one page, “which is unusual in a shipment of meat,” the complaint said. It also didn’t match the actual bill of lading that the victim had provided.
Because Fuentes was not registered with the Department of Transportation to haul goods, the officer cited him for violations but didn’t arrest him. The three men continued driving while authorities monitored them until Oct. 20, when they reached Florida.
As they exited a highway, Florida state troopers followed them and pulled over Fuentes, who again showed the bill of lading and the ham. Nearby, police found Del Sol and Andino parked at a rest stop and inspected their trailers, which allegedly contained the same goods that had been reported stolen in Minnesota and South Dakota.
The men were arrested and detained in Miami. They have been released on bail, Izaguirre said, and are awaiting arraignments.
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