Numerous Bay Area car break-ins have been linked to a multimillion-dollar fencing operation in which computer tablets and laptops stolen from vehicles were shipped overseas and sold on the black market in Vietnam, authorities said Wednesday.
Eight people from San Francisco and San Jose were charged and more than $2 million in stolen goods were seized after a joint investigation by Fremont police and the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office, police said.
“We want people to know the level of crime this is,” said Fremont police Lt. Mike Tegner. “This isn’t just a normal property crime.”
Fremont has been plagued by the same spike in car break-ins afflicting other cities, including San Francisco. Police in the East Bay city decided to step up their efforts when car burglaries shot up 35 percent last year, Tegner said. One tactic was increased surveillance of break-in spots.
That led them to focus on 28-year-old Carlos Paz, whom police identified as the main “fence,” a term for people who buy stolen items from street-level thieves and resell them. On Dec. 8, investigators following Paz’s trail discovered a storage container with a bounty of stolen electronic equipment — mainly laptops — at a facility on Mabury Road in San Jose, police said.
Detectives followed a semi-truck from the site to Interstate 880 to Fremont, where they pulled it over and discovered nearly $1 million worth of stolen electronics, authorities said. Investigators believe the equipment was bound for the Port of Oakland and a cargo ship that would take it to the Far East.
“It’s the best example of how the police — when they’re patient and use advanced investigative techniques — can really crack the larger crime story,” said Marisa McKeown, a Santa Clara County prosecutor who worked with police on the investigation.
Fremont police said Paz lives in San Francisco, where city law enforcement has recently come under fire for a soaring number of car break-ins amid a trifling arrest rate. Some of the auto thefts in the fencing operation occurred in San Francisco, authorities said, but it’s unclear how many.
Suspects arraigned Friday in Santa Clara County included Paz; San Jose residents Huong Tran, 31; Benjamin Pham, 44; Luan Huynh, 30; and Hung On, 51; and San Francisco residents Cinthia Martinez, 38; Marvin Paz, 33; and Rony Martinez, 34. Charges included felony possession of stolen property and conspiracy.
Authorities suspect the operation, which netted at least $2 million worth of laptops and tablets, was a family affair. Marvin Paz is Carlos Paz’s cousin, police said, and Cinthia Martinez is Carlos’ partner. Rony Martinez is Carlos’ brother in-law.
Police allegedly connected Huyhn and On to the storage unit bound for the cargo ship. Pham and Tran are accused of handling another international shipment that police intercepted at San Francisco International Airport on Jan. 25.
Pham had dropped off Tran and a second person who was flying with her to Vietnam, police said, and together they tried to check 18 pieces of luggage. Authorities allegedly found more than 300 stolen electric devices inside the bags. A search revealed that Pham had at least 700 more stolen electronics at his home, Lt. Tegner said.
The sophistication of operations like these helps to explain the surge in car break-ins throughout the Bay Area, Tegner said.
In San Francisco, auto break-ins increased 26 percent from 2016 to 2017, according to police figures. A police spokesman said the department is researching whether the fencing operation has ties to vehicle break-ins in the city.
San Jose saw a 25 percent increase in car break-ins from 2016 to 2017, said prosecutor McKeown, who meets with regional law enforcement officials every month to discuss the issue.
“When we in law enforcement can get organized and share information like what happened in this investigation, we can really identify the bigger picture so we can be more effective in stopping a large crime spree,” McKeown said. “That’s what it takes.”
Jenna Lyons is a San Francisco Chronicle reporter. Email jlyons@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @JennaJourno
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