Four charged in California retail theft ring totaling $1 million worth of jewelry
Two suspects in an organized retail theft ring that stole about $1 million of jewelry from California stores have been sentenced to prison, and two others have been charged in connection to the scheme, Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Friday.
The retail theft operation stole “high-end” jewelry from numerous JCPenney and Sam’s Club locations across the state, including in Sacramento County as well as Contra Costa, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Placer, San Bernardino, Santa Clarita and Tulare counties, Bonta’s office said in a news release.
The thefts took place between September 2020 and February 2021, and involved suspects breaking and entering through the stores’ exterior doors, according to the news release. Law enforcement officers located evidence of the thefts, including jewelry and cases used to sell them, in the defendants’ homes.
Defendants Anton Salaam and Marion Paul Tilley pleaded guilty to charges of organized retail theft. They were each sentenced to 16 months in state prison.
Two other suspects, not named in the news release, have also been charged with retail theft in connection with Salaam and Tilley’s scheme, with one of the two facing an additional charge of child endangerment after authorities located an illegal assault weapon in the presence of the suspect’s 9-year-old child.
Two of the four suspects were apprehended in Arizona, Bonta’s office said.
Bonta said the investigation was a cooperative effort between California Highway Patrol’s organized retail crime task force and a number of police departments and sheriff’s offices throughout California. In the Sacramento area, these included the Citrus Heights, Folsom and Roseville police departments.
Bonta and Gov. Gavin Newsom have said they would crack down on organized retail theft operations, following a number of high-profile incidents last year.
Bonta last month announced that nine suspects were facing felony charges, accused in a retail theft ring operating in at least 11 counties including Sacramento.
“Brazen criminal activity, such as the organized retail theft operation we are taking action against today, will not be tolerated in California,” Bonta said in a prepared statement Friday.
This story was originally published April 29, 2022 at 10:55 AM with the headline "Four charged in California retail theft ring totaling $1 million worth of jewelry."
