Tulare County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a call near Delano in early March regarding a stolen backhoe.
That call led to law enforcement uncovering an extensive agriculture theft operation occurring throughout the Central Valley linked to a Mexican cartel.
The backstory: Sheriff’s detectives found the stolen backhoe at a truck stop in Tulare five days after it was stolen.
- It was hidden within a semi-truck with another backhoe and an excavator that had been reported missing from Kings County.
- Truck drivers Juan Carlos Murrufo, 22, and Endi Jesus Lopez Bustillos, 31 – both Mexican nationals – were arrested. Tulare County detectives obtained evidence that indicated a far more extensive operation that involved trafficking stolen construction equipment across the border.
- Murrufo and Bustillos admitted to detectives a number of trips that they made hauling stolen equipment from all around the Central Valley across the border into Mexico.
Driving the news: The investigation picked up in April when Tulare County Ag Detectives received an alert from Stanislaus County identifying two more suspects connected to the theft operation.
- That led to the June discovery of two loaders stolen from Camp Nelson, further leading detectives to Hollister and the identification of more suspects and vehicles linked to the theft ring.
The big picture: Tulare County detectives worked alongside numerous law enforcement agencies to investigate the theft ring for several months.
- Law enforcement has identified over $2.25 million in stolen equipment and has successfully recovered around $1.3 million worth of equipment, totalling 24 pieces.
- Law enforcement dubbed the investigation Operation Tractor Pull, which included 75 law enforcement personnel from Sheriff’s Offices and District Attorney’s Offices around the Valley, as well as other law enforcement organizations.
What they’re saying: The Tulare County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that the investigation suggested a sophisticated network involving organized criminal activity with implications extending far beyond local boundaries.
- “This is a sophisticated criminal network that relies on our free and open border to illegally transfer stolen equipment from the U.S. to Mexico and sell that equipment to someone there,” the office said. “We have information that these truck drivers are receiving assistance that allows them to easily circumvent the checkpoint at the border. We are working with Homeland Security to try and secure that checkpoint. However, policies from our current administration make that very difficult.”
State of play: The investigation continued early Tuesday morning when law enforcement converged on six locations in Los Banos, Hollister, Riverdale and Lindsay to serve warrants.
- Noe Guevara of Los Banos, 30, Joel Avila of Hollister, 43, Israel Garrido Cortez of Lindsay, 32, and Nicolas Ruiz Cruz of Salinas, 24, were arrested on Tuesday.
- Law enforcement recovered three stolen trailers from Tehachapi and Los Banos, a stolen generator from Reedley and $46,000 in cash. Detectives also found two truck-bed loads of processed marijuana, two handguns, two rifles and three shotguns.
- The suspects all face charges of grand theft, conspiracy to commit a crime and receiving stolen property. Cortez also faces charges of operating or maintaining a drug house for the sales or distribution of controlled substances.
Go deeper: A number of the suspects all have significant border crossing history.
- According to the Sheriff’s Office, Ivan Garcia was caught trafficking drugs across the border in 2022. Marco Antonio Alvarez Medrano, a Mexican national, owns a trucking company in Mexico which has been flagged for trafficking drugs for the La Linea Cartel. Those two suspects are still outstanding.
- Javier Diaz Garcia, 33, was arrested last week and has been flagged for crossing the border 23 times just in October and has over 500 crossings in the last two years.
- The remaining outstanding suspects are Michael Angel Saez of Los Banos, Francisco Muniz de la Mora of Riverdale and Eliseo Ortiz Puyicatla of Linday.
