$175K In Stolen Goods Recovered, Arrests Made
NORTHWEST MIAMI-DADE (CBS4) – More than two dozen people have been arrested in connection with a stolen goods ring.
The arrests were made Thursday night at a warehouse located at 7569 NW 70th Street in Northwest Miami-Dade.
Inside the warehouse, police said, they found more than $175,000 worth of stolen goods from stores like Macy's, Express, and Victoria's Secret. Police say the warehouse was set up as a clandestine department store with racks of clothing, handbags, perfume, and electronics.
The warehouse was the headquarters for an organized, high-end shoplifting operation, according to Sweetwater police officials. Investigators said people involved with the shoplifting would take their stolen items back to the warehouse and sell it for 25-cents on the dollar, then the items would be resold for 50-cents on the dollar.
The shoplifters would use aluminum foil lined shopping bags to circumvent anti-theft mechanisms at the various stores, said police. Police also said some of the goods were headed out of the country.
Sweetwater Police Lt. Ed Fuentes said, "we're finding out that most of the items that were recovered. A lot of these were staged to be shipped overseas they were being shipped in containers."
Piles of the stolen goods were at the Sweetwater Police Department Friday. "We're siphoning through all of this which is quite a bit as you can see," said Lt. Fuentes, "but most of the stores, the stores that I just mentioned, did pick up most of the property."
Police from three different jurisdictions were involved in the investigation including Sweetwater, Doral and Aventura
