Another major fencing bust in the Bay Area yields thousands of stolen laptops, phones

FREMONT — Bay Area authorities announced Thursday afternoon the takedown of multiple illegal fencing operations, resulting in the recovery of about 2,200 electronic devices worth more than $1.5 million, many of which police say were likely stolen from people's cars over the past several months.

Officials from the Fremont Police Department and Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office also said police took nearly $250,000 in cash along with several high-end cars as evidence in some of the cases against 11 suspects authorities have charged in connection with rings that sell stolen electronics to overseas buyers.

The cars, including a 2019 Mercedes G43 AMG, and a 2013 Porsche Panamera, were believed to be purchased with profits from stolen cellphones, laptops, and other electronics taken in the kind of smash-and-grab auto burglaries that have been a plague on Bay Area residents and visitors for several years, police said.

"Make no mistake about it, what you're looking at here is organized crime," Santa Clara County Supervising Deputy District Attorney Marisa McKeown said Thursday.

"And behind me are the spoils of a vast criminal conspiracy going from the burglars that are breaking into your cars every single night across the Bay Area, headed for foreign shores," she said while standing in front of the cars, as well as a collection of laptops and bags displayed outside the Fremont Police Department.

The operations announced Thursday were largely investigated between January and February, and represent a continuation of collaborative law enforcement efforts led by Fremont police detectives focusing on stopping the fences — or brokers of stolen goods — from being able to illicitly sell electronics overseas.

Authorities hope cutting off the fences will cut off funding that supports the lower-level criminals who break into cars.

Thousands more devices worth millions, along with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash had been seized by authorities in two prior cases targeting fences in the Bay Area.

The largest cache in the most recent haul announced Thursday was found after police followed two fencing suspects, Brayan Burgos and Ernesto Guevarra, to Gilroy where they met with Andy Nguyen, in an attempt to avoid detection in the Oakland area.

Police watched as the suspects moved items into Nguyen's rented minivan, and a total of five suspects were arrested in a parking lot at the Gilroy Outlets. In addition to Burgos, Guevarra and Nguyen, police also arrested Edward Burgos and Fernando Ramos.

Detectives found over 300 laptops in the two cars in Gilroy, and in follow up investigations, located two storage units and a moving truck in Oakland, where more than 1,500 laptops, phones, cameras and other devices were found.

Nearly 550 of the recently recovered devices were found at iTek Mobile Care in San Jose, where police say the owner Thu Van Ho, known as Kevin, and his associate Than Nguyen, were arrested for possession of stolen property.

Police said the pair was wiping stolen laptops of the owner's personal information, and shipping them in bulk on a bus line to Los Angeles, where they would then be shipped to buyers in Vietnam.

Of the 11 suspects facing charges who were named Thursday, one still remains at large: Carlos Paz. He was arrested in a major 2018 fencing scheme but had since been released, and police say they had Paz under surveillance in February.

When police tried to pull his car over in Oakland on Feb. 7, he fled, and was later involved in a crash, but got away before police arrived. He's still on the run, police say, though the car he was driving was found to have dozens of suspected stolen laptops, cellphones, tablets and cameras inside. Another car, Paz's white BMW, was taken from his home as evidence in the case.

Authorities and lawmakers on Thursday also continued calls for harsher punishment for people caught stealing electronic devices in auto burglaries, as another avenue to help deter criminals from committing break-ins in the first place.

Assemblyman Kansen Chu said he will soon introduce a bill in the legislature, AB2375, that would ensure felony charges are nearly automatic for people involved in these break-ins. He also wants to have the state create a database of stolen electronics accessible to the public, so consumers can cross-check it before buying used electronics from private sellers that could be stolen.

Chu had helped allocate nearly $4 million in state surplus cash to five Bay Area police departments last fall — $750,000 apiece to Fremont, San Jose, Milpitas, Newark and Santa Clara — to help stem the tide of break-ins, and encourage regional approaches to the problem.

"We have been coordinating very closely with agencies in our area, and holding meetings to share intelligence, and this is the result of that intelligence sharing," Fremont police Det. Rick Zemlok said.

Fremont in 2017 saw its highest number of car break-ins in more than a decade at 2,078, according to state crime statistics. It dipped down to 1,850 in 2018, but numbers were high again through June of 2019, and Zemlok said January of 2020 saw a lot of break-ins in the city.

However, Zemlok said investigators believe law enforcement's concerted targeting of these larger fencing operations is having a positive impact, making it riskier for those who would organize such crime rings.

McKeown, of the Santa Clara County DA's office, said funding more regional efforts will be necessary to combat the break-in epidemic, but also called on the general public to take steps to protect belongings.

"It's not enough just to lock your car. They'll break in, they'll break your glass, they'll pop your trunk, and they don't care, because for each one of these devices they're getting cash in hand," she said.

"It's easy, and they don't need a day job, because they can take your property," she said. "Do not leave your expensive electronic device in your car."

Fremont Police said anyone who had devices stolen from them between July 19, 2019, and Jan. 20, 2020, should email LaptopRecovery@fremont.gov, and provide a serial number for the device that was taken, so authorities can determine if your property is among the thousands of stolen devices they recovered.

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