Calabasas CA
4-30-2022 4:51pm

Organized Retail Theft Ring Focus of CA AG Bonta: Resulting in Significant Prosecution via CHP & DOJ

According to the California Attorney General's website

"The dismantling of this criminal network is the culmination of two years of cooperative efforts led by the California Highway Patrol’s (CHP) Organized Retail Crime Task Force. Between September 2020 and February 2021, defendants Anton Salaam and Marion Paul Tilley, and two other suspects committed retail theft at multiple JCPenney and Sam’s Clubs stores, resulting in approximately $1 million in losses to the stores."

The suspects in this case entered stores by breaking and entering though exterior doors and stealing high-end jewelry in locations throughout California including Contra Costa, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Los Angeles, Placer, Sacramento, San Bernardino, and Tulare Counties. The arrests and pleas are a result of an investigation by multiple law enforcement agencies that began in 2020. As a result of the investigation, officers located evidence in the defendants’ homes, including jewelry and cases used for sale. It is further alleged that the suspects were stealing the items to sell, exchange, or return them for value.

The California Attorney General's website details on ORGANIZED RETAIL THEFT include:

  • Takes many forms—from coordinated thefts of specific goods to orchestrated, brazen attacks on local retailers.
  • These organized crimes are felonies – not petty theft or shoplifting.
  • Are often part of sophisticated criminal networks that plan their attacks weeks or months before they are carried out.
  • Places the safety and well-being of California consumers, workers, and businesses at risk.

July 2021

  • Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 331 to extend CHP’s Organized Retail Crime Task Force until January 1, 2026.
  • The focus on three regions – the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego and Orange County; was not specified in the bill but rather 

"Prior law, until July 1, 2021, required the Department of the California Highway Patrol to coordinate with the Department of Justice to convene a regional property crimes task force to identify geographic areas experiencing increased levels of property crimes and assist local law enforcement with resources, such as personnel and equipment. The bill would reenact the regional property crimes task force until January 1, 2026.

    •  Two California cities – Los Angeles and San Francisco – rank in the top five cities experiencing organized retail theft, according to the National Retail Federation.

    September 2018

    • Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1065.
      • The bill was in response to Proposition 47 -
        • "Proposition 47 requires that the act of shoplifting be charged as shoplifting and prohibits a person who is charged with shoplifting from being charged with burglary or theft of the same property."
        • This bill would, until January 1, 2021, create the crime of organized retail theft which would be defined as acting in concert with one or more persons to steal merchandise from one or more merchant’s premises or online marketplace with the intent to sell, exchange, or return the merchandise for value,...The bill would make these crimes punishable as either misdemeanors or felonies, as specified. By creating new crimes, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
      • Under this law, the CHP partnered with DOJ to establish a regional property crimes task force and assist local law enforcement with resources, such as personnel and equipment.

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