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Title: Sophisticated SoCal crime tourism ring stole millions in heists, home burglaries, feds say
Source: LA Times via Yahoo
URL Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/sophisti ... me-tourism-ring-183914261.html
Published: Aug 28, 2024
Author: Richard Winton, Hannah Fry
Post Date: 2024-08-28 20:43:23 by Dakmar
Keywords: None
Views: 95

A multimillion-dollar crime tourism scheme that operated for years in Southern California, facilitating thefts across the country, led investigators to a most unusual hub: a Los Angeles car rental business.

But this wasn't just any rental car shop. The business "catered only to crooks," U.S. Atty. Martin Estrada said at a news conference Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors allege Juan Carlos Thola-Duran, who owns Driver Power Rentals in Van Nuys, ran the go-to rental car business for thieves, providing vehicles for crime tourism groups arriving from South America and directing them to locations both in and outside California for their thefts.

Thola-Duran, 57, is one of six people facing charges including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to transport stolen goods for their alleged roles in the scheme, federal prosecutors said. Others charged are Thola-Duran's girlfriend, Ana Maria Arriagada, 41; his son John Carlo Thola, 33; Miguel Angel Barajas, 57; Patricia Enderton, 43; and Federico Jorge Triebel IV, 78, court records show.

"These defendants acted essentially as quarterbacks for a massive team of eager thieves," Estrada said.

Estrada said the group directed crime tourists who committed hundreds of thefts across the nation — including in Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties — beginning around 2018. The thefts occurred in about 80 cities in California, Colorado, Arizona, New Jersey, Kansas and Illinois and netted about $5.5 million for those charged in the case, according to the indictment. However, prosecutors estimated the loss to businesses and homeowners at about $35 million.

The crews would use the rented cars while shoplifting luxury goods, breaking into homes and businesses and stealing people's credit and bank cards, prosecutors said.

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