Eleven people have been indicted on charges related to a large scale cargo theft incident in Arizona.
On February 11, 2025, a grand jury indicted Noe Cecena-Castro and ten others for possession of stolen goods related to the theft of nearly 2,000 pairs of Nike shoes from a BNSF train in Northern Arizona.
The theft of the Nike shoes is part of a larger cargo theft operation targeting trains in California and Arizona, officials say.
From the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona:
“The initial complaint connected to the most recent indictment alleges that on January 13, 2025, Noe Cecena-Castro and ten other defendants worked together to pack and transport approximately 1,900 pairs of unreleased Nike shoes. Around 11:00 am, a BNSF train was immobilized due to a cut air hose in Perrin, Arizona. Shortly after the emergency stop, a BNSF police officer observed several cases of Nike shoes on the side of the tracks where the train had been forced to stop. Law enforcement later located a U-Haul box truck and a privately owned Ford Econoline truck traveling near the stolen goods. The U-Haul was seen at the site of the Nike shoes where several people loaded the Nike cases into the U-Haul. Both trucks were searched by law enforcement and found to contain 1,985 pairs of unreleased Nike shoes, which are worth over $440,000. A Chevy Tahoe, which had also been seen in the area, was stopped and found to be transporting the rest of the crew that had loaded the Nike cases. All eleven defendants were taken into custody.“
Cargo theft operations targeting trains often cut air hoses in order to bring trains to a halt, officials said:
“Criminal organizations that specialize in stealing from trains, which consist primarily of Mexican citizens with connections to the Mexican State of Sinaloa, have used the technique of cutting air hoses to control where trains with valuable cargo come to a stop. This act is very dangerous and can cause the trains, which travel up to 70 miles per hour, to derail. Once the train is stopped at a location of the organization’s choosing, crews will break into select containers and unload the cargo alongside the tracks. Another crew will then drive box trucks or other cargo vehicles to the location of the stolen goods. This second crew will load the goods into the vehicles for transport to California, where the goods will be sold online.“
Officials say that nine of the eleven defendants are Mexican nationals. In addition to the possession of stolen goods charges, the grand jury also returned charges for three of the defendants of Re-entry of Removed Alien and six of the defendants of Improper Entry by Alien.