Giovanni Munoz Leon, 51, and Nury Alejandra Herrera Palacio, 32, both of Ontario, were arrested Thursday following a months-long Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigation.

Leon and Palacio were slated to make a joint initial court appearance Monday afternoon at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.

Both are being held in lieu of $500,000 bail — Leon at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta, and Palacio at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.

According to sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Thomas, the defendants allegedly snatched a number of beauty products from the shelves of a Lake Elsinore outlet in late August, then proceeded to flee the location without paying. The estimated loss to the business was $3,000.

Thomas said the ensuing investigation did not turn up sufficient evidence to reveal the perpetrators’ identities, but Leon and Palacio returned to the same store on Sept. 28 and allegedly grabbed $2,000 in merchandise before fleeing again. This time, investigators were able to procure enough information to ultimately identify the alleged thieves, he said.

“They determined that from June to October of this year, Leon and Palacio were responsible for over 50 thefts within California, totaling $123,000 in (stolen) merchandise,” the sergeant said.
Detectives obtained a search warrant for the pair’s shared residence in the 2500 block of East Riverside Drive, “where evidence connecting them to the thefts was recovered,” Thomas said.

“During the search, stolen clothing was located from multiple retail establishments,” he said.

Neither defendant has documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.

The post Duo Charged With Organized Retail Theft In State, Lake Elsinore Heists appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The Moreno Valley Sheriff’s Station Special Enforcement Team had been investigating the trailer cargo theft ring since February and served a search warrant on the warehouse off of Highway 74 on Thursday night in an unincorporated area called Good Hope.

Inside the warehouse, deputies found pallets stacked high with stolen goods, including food and industrial-grade tools, the department said.

Retail theft has been an increasing problem in the last year or so, prompting state and local officials to respond by creating task forces and proposing legislation to impose harsher penalties on repeat offenders and allow retailers to file restraining orders against repeat culprits.

Truck driver Rajdeep Singh, 34, was detained at the Good Hope location during the search and arrested on suspicion of possession of heroin and drug paraphernalia.

“This is an ongoing investigation, and deputies are working to determine Singh’s involvement and identifying additional suspects,” the department said in a statement.

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