Inside the Mojave Desert train heists targeting Nike sneakers

The thieves stealthily board eastbound freight trains, hiding out until they reach lonely stretches of the Mojave Desert or high plains far from towns. They slash an air brake hose, causing the mile-long line of railcars to screech to an emergency stop.

Then, they go shopping.

That’s the modus operandi described by investigators in a string of at least 10 heists targeting BNSF trains in California and Arizona since last March. All but one resulted in the theft of Nike sneakers, their combined value approaching $2 million, according to investigators.

New sneaker releases may have touched off at least some of the recent incidents. In Perrin, Ariz., thieves allegedly cut an air brake hose on a BNSF freight train on Jan. 13 and unloaded 1,985 pairs of unreleased Nikes worth more than $440,000, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Phoenix. Many were Nigel Sylvester x Air Jordan 4s, which won’t be available to the public until March 14 and are expected to retail at $225 per pair, the complaint states.

Theft crews typically scout high-value merchandise on rail lines that parallel Interstate 40 by boarding slow-moving trains, such as when they are changing tracks and opening containers, said Keith Lewis, vice president of operations at Verisk’s CargoNet and a deputy with the Mohave County, Ariz., Sheriff’s Department.

Lewis said the thieves are sometimes tipped off to valuable shipments by confederates working at warehouses or trucking companies. Other times they simply look for containers with high-security locks, which they cut with reciprocating saws or bolt cutters, a Homeland Security Investigations special agent said in affidavits filed in federal court.

Once the desired loot is found, the thieves alert “follow vehicles,” which track the train. The stolen goods are tossed off the train after it comes to a halt — either for a scheduled stop or because an air hose has been cut or control wires inside signal boxes have been sabotaged, said the federal agent, Brynna Cooke.

The cargo is then loaded into box trucks, or hidden in nearby brush until they arrive — provided the surveillance crews that are following the train don’t detect law enforcement, Cooke said. These tactics are often employed by transnational criminal groups that consist primarily of Mexican citizens from Sinaloa, she said.

There were at least 65,000 railroad cargo thefts last year, a 40% increase from 2023, according to industry estimates compiled by the Assn. of American Railroads. The thefts — which are typically classified as burglaries because they don’t involve directly confronting victims, as with robberies — are believed to have cost the nation’s largest rail companies more than $100 million, according to the trade group.

Those figures may be an undercount, because railroads don’t publicize all thefts, Lewis said. Details typically emerge publicly only when arrests are made and criminal complaints are filed.

“Why would I want to put my own dirty laundry on the street?” Lewis said. “If I show a theft trend going along a rail line, everybody’s going to know the railroad has a problem.”

BNSF said in a statement that its internal police force shares information with local law enforcement and prosecutors as appropriate.

The company said its crews are instructed not to confront thieves, but to report the incidents instead. But the crews rarely encounter them, it said, because the trains are so long and the thieves take care to evade detection.

In Lewis’ experience, the thefts tend to ebb and flow, often tied to the release of a desirable new product. In December, investigators saw a rash of thefts in which smart vacuum cleaners were stolen from train containers, Lewis said.

In the Jan. 13 heist, stolen cases of Nikes hurled from the train were later picked up by trucks, the federal complaint states. County and state law enforcement officers were able to catch up with the vehicles with the help of tracking devices that were inside some of the boxes. Eleven people were arrested and charged with possessing or receiving goods stolen from interstate shipment. Nine were found to be Mexican citizens in the U.S. illegally, prosecutors said. Three were charged with illegal reentry after removal and six with improper entry. Five defendants have pleaded not guilty; six have yet to enter pleas, according to a court docket.

In another case, a BNSF train came to an emergency stop near Hackberry, Ariz., on Nov. 20 after it started losing air, according to a complaint filed in the Phoenix federal court. Sheriff’s deputies in Mohave County stopped a white panel van seen leaving the area and found about 180 pairs of then-unreleased Air Jordan 11 Retro Legend Blue sneakers valued at $41,400, the complaint states. The driver pleaded not guilty to possessing or receiving goods stolen from interstate shipment.

And in yet another BNSF train burglary near Yampai, Ariz., on Dec. 6, investigators recovered about $48,000 worth of then-unreleased Nike Dunk Low Midnight Navy sneakers, according to a complaint filed in the Phoenix federal court charging four people with possessing or receiving goods stolen from interstate shipment. Three have pleaded not guilty, with one set for a change of plea hearing to plead guilty, and one has yet to enter a plea, according to the case docket.

Investigators also recovered a combined total of $346,200 worth of then-unreleased Nike Air Jordans following two BNSF train burglaries in April and June, according to documents filed in Phoenix federal court.

Two other cases in which BNSF freight trains were burglarized near Kingman and Seligman, Ariz., last year resulted in the theft of $612,000 worth of Nikes and eight arrests, according to federal criminal complaints. In the Kingman case, five defendants have pleaded not guilty to charges of possessing or receiving goods stolen from interstate shipment, according to the case docket. Details involving the Seligman case have been filed under seal.

The stolen merchandise is usually transported to California to be sold or offered for sale online via third-party Amazon and EBay resellers, Cooke said in affidavits filed with several of those cases.

Both Amazon and EBay said in statements that they have zero tolerance for criminal activity on their platforms, and that they work with law enforcement to support prosecutions against people who sell stolen goods.

The court documents show that the thefts have continued even with the arrest last June of a man authorities have described as a ringleader. Felipe Arturo Avalos-Mejia, known as Pollo, allegedly used scouts to help him select which trains to target, supplied vehicles for and paid burglary crews and facilitated the sale of stolen merchandise, according to a complaint filed in the Phoenix federal court.

Investigators said he lived in Los Angeles, operated out of both Los Angeles and Phoenix and is believed to have been involved in BNSF train thefts for more than 11 years.

On June 20, California local law enforcement agencies and Homeland Security agents executed search warrants at 11 residences and 16 storage units related to the ongoing train burglaries, arresting 43 suspects and recovering from the storage units about $3 million worth of merchandise believed to have been stolen from BNSF trains, according to the complaint. More merchandise — including numerous boxes of stolen Nike shoes — were allegedly recovered from the home of a woman who said she had a romantic relationship with Avalos-Mejia, the complaint states.

Avalos-Mejia initially evaded authorities, court documents state. Investigators said they recovered from the location where he fled 74 cases of stolen Nikes, 108 packs of socks and 35 pairs of shoes worth about $94,659, as well as 10 stolen vehicles believed to have been used in prior BNSF train burglaries.

Avalos-Mejia was taken into custody June 21 at a restaurant in Huntington Park along with another man, who was carrying a Louis Vuitton bag with $120,000 in cash and a detailed ledger listing Nike and other merchandise burglarized from BNSF trains alongside dollar amounts detailing its worth, according to the complaint.

Avalos-Mejia has pleaded not guilty to possessing or receiving goods stolen from interstate shipment, and his trial is scheduled to get underway in June, the case docket states. His lawyers couldn’t be reached for comment.

Local law enforcement authorities are also involved in train theft investigations. San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies are looking into possible connections between recent burglaries in Arizona and two heists in the desert ghost town of Amboy, in which $436,000 worth of Nike merchandise was stolen from BNSF trains.

In the first, on Jan. 10, BNSF police asked San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies for help responding to the burglary, the Sheriff’s Department said in a news release.

On their way to the train line, deputies saw an unmarked box truck driving through Wonder Valley, an unincorporated community outside Twentynine Palms. They conducted a traffic stop and found $18,000 worth of Nike shoes that had been stolen from the train, according to a criminal complaint.

Deputies arrested the occupants of the box truck — Jose Villalobos-Infante, 45, of Phoenix, and Oscar Sosa, 28, of Apple Valley, who were allegedly headed to Los Angeles with the stolen merchandise, according to the complaint.

Villalobos-Infante and Sosa have pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree burglary, conspiracy and grand theft that were filed in San Bernardino County Superior Court.

Five days later, BNSF police again contacted the Sheriff’s Department to ask for help responding to a freight train that was being burglarized by multiple people in Amboy, according to a news release from the Sheriff’s Department.

As deputies traveled to the scene, they tried to stop an unmarked white van driving in Wonder Valley, but it sped off, sparking a pursuit, the release states. The van got stuck on a sand berm and its two occupants ran off, investigators said. Deputies, with the help of a Sheriff’s Department helicopter, caught up with and arrested two boys, 16 and 17. Their identities were not released because they are minors, and the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment on whether charges were filed against the two teens.

The same night, deputies saw another vehicle they believed to be related to the crime and broadcast its information over the dispatch system. California Highway Patrol later stopped the vehicle in Landers, but its driver fled on foot and remains at large, the Sheriff’s Department said.

Investigators recovered 218 cases of Nike products worth $418,000, the Sheriff’s Department said.

Times researchers Cary Schneider and Scott Wilson contributed to this report.