California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the California Department of Justice (DOJ) has secured the guilty pleas of two members of an organized retail theft ring operating throughout California, and filed charges against another individual allegedly involved in the scheme.
The following information is from California A.G. Rob Bonta:
The dismantling of this criminal network is the culmination of two years of cooperative efforts led by the California Highway Patrol’s (CHP) Organized Retail Crime Task Force. Between September 2020 and February 2021, defendants Anton Salaam and Marion Paul Tilley, and two other suspects committed retail theft at multiple JCPenney and Sam’s Clubs stores, resulting in approximately $1 million in losses to the stores.
To combat organized retail theft, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1065. Under this law, the CHP has partnered with DOJ to establish a regional property crimes task force and assist local law enforcement with resources, such as personnel and equipment. Governor Newsom also signed Assembly Bill 331 to extend CHP’s Organized Retail Crime Task Force until January 1, 2026.
The suspects in this case entered stores by breaking and entering though exterior doors and stealing high-end jewelry in locations throughout California including Contra Costa, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Los Angeles, Placer, Sacramento, San Bernardino, and Tulare Counties. The arrests and pleas are a result of an investigation by multiple law enforcement agencies that began in 2020. As a result of the investigation, officers located evidence in the defendants’ homes, including jewelry and cases used for sale. It is further alleged that the suspects were stealing the items to sell, exchange, or return them for value.
Salaam and Tilley pled guilty to a violation of organized retail theft. Salaam was sentenced to 16 months imprisonment. Tilley has pleaded guilty and agreed to a 16-month prison sentence but has not yet been formally sentenced. A third suspect has been charged with organized retail theft and child endangerment, as an illegal assault weapon was allegedly found in the presence of the suspect’s nine-year-old child. A fourth suspect was also charged with organized retail theft.
California and states across the country have seen a pattern of organized retail crime. According to a 2020 national survey, U.S. retailers lose approximately $700,000 per every $1 billion in sales to organized retail crime.
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Retail theft, organized or otherwise, will be continue to be widespread until all County DAs get on the same page with in terms of maximum prosecution.
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Are you listening Bonta? You need to call in Chesa Boudin and George Gascon immediately for a sit-down.
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Otherwise, you’re just putting 💄 on a pig.
Big whoop! The soft on crime clowns are starting to make announcements of these prosecutions because its an election year. The intent is to once again dupe the California voters into thinking they are doing their job. Not falling for it at all.
True!
True, and the mainstream media will be giving them free airtime to spread their B S and empty promises. Sadly, it will work on the voters in California
I’d feel better if Bonita would prosecute the Organized Legislative Theft Ring that operates out of Sacramento. This results in billions of $ in losses to the taxpayers of California.
Time for a positive change, do not re-elect these financially ignorant politicians.
A 16-month prison sentence, which translates into maybe 8 months in actual custody is another sad joke played on the law-abiding citizens of California. My guess is that this will actually be a time-served sentence when all is said and done. Absolutely pathetic and so predictable of the Sick Socialists ruining the state.
16 months???? no more than a “slap on the wrist”; our country’s judicial system is becoming increasingly more indifferent to the damage done to victims, while increasingly becoming more sympathetic, even to the extent of mollycoddling criminal perpetrators
I have to believe that there are more than 4 people involved in all these robberies.
Sixteen months is nothing.
They may not even serve any time at all.
They have to work so they can take care of their families and small children and old maid aunts.
They’ll be out thieving soon.
Why don’t they go after the violent ones?
A rhetorical question obviously.
16 months?!?
Seriously it is becoming more and more obvious everyday that California is not a state in which tax paying, law abiding citizens will want to live. So soft on crime that it is absurd.
16 months is a joke. I work in retail and EVERYDAY people shoplift from our store. Several times a day. They know what they’re doing is wrong so why the soft sentences? Two years of multiple agencies and who knows how many man hours and tax payer dollars have been wasted on this and all the scumbags get is 16 months out in 8? Total BS.
Voting Becton out of office would be step one.
@WC
But ONLY step one…..There is much more work that needs to be done but you’re right getting rid of Becton is high priority and must be done right away.
At first I thought they were doing something good. Silly me.
Make it Nationwide while your at it. ————————–> Egads.
Yes, it is the November election due! “Lookee what I have accomplished”!
Bonta is no better than Becton and the same as Boudin and Garcon! He is in the same mold as Mayorkas and Padilla!
They are bad apples in a basket of bad apples.
In what country can you only get sixteen months in the slammer for stealing a million dollars? Beside ours?
He pats himself on the back when he starts doing what he should have been doing all along.
Must be an election year.