Nine men whom investigators describe as associates of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel have been arrested in San Bernardino, Southern California, after a yearlong investigation into an organised cargo-theft operation that targeted BNSF Railway freight trains, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department announced on Wednesday.
Source: FreightWaves
The arrests were made on October 16, when investigators with the Sheriff's Rural Crime Task Force, assisted by the department's Specialized Enforcement Division, executed a search warrant at a residence in the 1200 block of East 35th Street in San Bernardino. All nine suspects were taken into custody during the search and booked into the Central Detention Center in San Bernardino County, the department said.
Source: The Logistic News
What deputies found inside the house
During the search, deputies recovered more than $333,000 worth of stolen retail merchandise, including JBL speakers, Logitech computer hardware, Victoria's Secret merchandise, Nike and New Balance shoes, and Husky tools. Investigators also seized four semiautomatic handguns, a drone allegedly used for surveillance, a large amount of cash, tools used to access train cargo containers, and four vehicles connected to recent rail cargo burglaries. Suspected fentanyl, believed to have been possessed for sale, was also recovered, authorities said.
The nine men named by the Sheriff's Department
The Sheriff's Department identified the suspects as Jose Navarrete, 24; Brian Iran Fontes-Carrillo, 27; Mauro Ruiz-Medina, 30; Pastor Pena-Lerma, 43; Alfredo Covarrubias-Navarrete, 24; Jose Alfredo Castillo-Baca, 24; Jose Ismael Palafox-Bernal, 18; Cesar Daniel Navarrete-Martinez, 31; and Cristian Erubiel Navarrete-Zapien, 23. All nine were identified as residents of Mexico. They face charges including conspiracy, theft of railroad property and possession of a controlled substance while armed. The allegations have not been tested in court.
Investigators say the men were part of a coordinated criminal network connected to the Sinaloa Cartel that burglarised BNSF trains over the past 12 months. The Sheriff's Department has not explained how the alleged cartel connection was established, has not specified each man's alleged role, and has not disclosed the total number of train burglaries or the full value of cargo stolen over the year. FreightWaves reported that authorities put the losses from the operation in the millions of dollars.
Not the first train-heist arrest on this corridor
One of the nine, Pastor Pena-Lerma, 43, had already been arrested in an earlier San Bernardino County train case. In a September 4, 2026 release, the Sheriff's Morongo Basin station said BNSF investigators reported a train heist near Amboy involving some 15 to 20 vehicles, including white box trucks, carrying roughly $50,000 in Ariat boots and DeWalt equipment; Pena-Lerma was one of two men detained after an off-duty deputy spotted a matching box truck on Twentynine Palms Highway near Yucca Valley.
Source: SBSD Morongo Basin (Nixle)
Background: a two-year wave of rail cargo theft
The San Bernardino arrests land in the middle of a wider fight against organised rail theft across the California-Arizona corridor. Federal prosecutors have said criminal organisations specialising in train theft — made up primarily of Mexican citizens with connections to the Mexican state of Sinaloa — have cut trains' air brake hoses to force emergency stops, then opened containers and left boxes of goods beside the tracks for a second crew to collect and sell. In February, a federal grand jury indicted 11 defendants, including nine undocumented immigrants, over the theft of Nike merchandise shipped through northern Arizona, after authorities said hundreds of thousands of dollars in Nike shoes were taken from a moving BNSF train in January.
Why this matters for truckers and the Inland Empire
San Bernardino sits at the heart of Southern California's logistics belt, where BNSF and Union Pacific rail lines run alongside the I-10 and I-15 trucking corridors and some of the largest warehouse districts in the United States — a workforce in which Punjabi and other South Asian drivers and warehouse workers are heavily represented. Organised cargo theft raises insurance and security costs across the whole supply chain, and stolen freight frequently re-enters the market through the same road networks legitimate truckers haul on. Rail and trucking operators in the region have faced rising cargo-theft losses for two years.
What happens next
The nine men are expected to face arraignment in San Bernardino County court on the conspiracy, railroad-theft and armed drug-possession charges. The Sheriff's Department says the investigation is continuing: it has not said whether more arrests are expected, whether the targeted trains were stopped in yards or on active corridors, or whether the recovered $333,000 in goods is all of the cargo tied to the ring. Anyone with information about rail cargo theft in the county is typically directed to the Sheriff's Rural Crime Task Force.