Heist crew arrested during train burglary in the Cajon Pass

San Bernardino County deputies arrested multiple people for trying to steal from a freight train at the Cajon Pass in what resembled a scene from an old western movie. 

Victorville commuter Elias Vasquez bumped into a swarm of law enforcement officers as he made the long drive home Tuesday night through the Cajon Pass. 

"Usually, you usee a few cops ever once in awhile, but when you count at least eight, you know something is going on," he said.

Vasquez said he didn't know that officers had just busted an auto theft ring in the West Cajon Valley where looters used stolen cars to burglarize Burling Northern Santa Fe freight trains, according to authorities. 

A San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department spokesperson said the unnamed suspects forcibly stopped the trains just before 5 p.m. to steal merchandise. Authorities said the thieves boarded a BNSF train, immobilizing it. Then, they cut open locked shipping containers and tried to load cargo into the stolen vehicles.

"It's just like the old Wild West. It's crazy," retired Sheriff's deputy Forrest Billington said. 

The theft shared similarities to the thefts along the rails in Downtown Los Angeles in 2022. KCAL News broke the story of rampant thefts from cargo trains. Thousands of discarded cardboard boxes littered the tracks. A task force was formed. In the end, nearly two dozen organized criminals were arrested and accused of stealing millions of dollars worth of cargo. 

Last week, San Bernardino County Sheriff's deputies arrested four men in Needles for allegedly breaking into several train cars. 

When Vasquez drove through the pass Tuesday, he wondered why the train wasn't moving. 

"It was just stopped," he said. It wasn't moving at all. "I've never seen the train stopped there at that portion because I've always seen trains traveling through the specific part, but this one was at a complete dead stop. I didn't think nothing of it at the time."

Due to the ongoing investigation, deputies said they won't reveal how many people were arrested during Tuesday's train burglary. They only said several people were booked on numerous felony charges.