The South Texas Auto Theft Task Force has dismantled an auto theft ring that is responsible for stealing vehicles from across the Rio Grande Valley from at least September.
Fourteen members of the auto theft ring have been arrested by Brownsville Police Department officers who are on the South Texas Auto Theft Task Force.
Although some of the 14 arrested are from the Valley, some of the others are either from the Houston or Dallas area, said Investigator Martin Sandoval, spokesman for Brownsville PD.
“What we are thinking is that these individuals get a certain order of vehicles from Mexico and then they come to Brownsville, McAllen…find the vehicle, steal it and take it across to sell it over there to whoever the person is that actually ordered it from them,” Sandoval said.
It’s unknown the number of vehicles the group has stolen from the Valley area, and there’s a possibility warrants for their arrest could come in the near future from other law enforcement agencies.
“It is a sophisticated ring now because they coded their own keys on the spot, and they would steal your car or they would have a vehicle computer where they would just swap out the computer from your car to theirs and they would turn it on,” Sandoval said.
The arrests began Sept. 2, when Jacob Guevara Martinez and Marco Antonio Salas stole a 2015 GMC Sierra from Sunrise Mall and were stopped and arrested at Veterans International Bridge in Brownsville trying to cross the vehicle into Mexico, Sandoval said.
One day later, Rogelio Rivera stole a 2017 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck from Sunrise Mall and was arrested at the 700 block of International Boulevard, as he tried to cross the truck to Mexico, Sandoval said.
The arrests continued with John Stephen Hollinger being taken into custody Oct. 27, accused of stealing a 2012 Volkswagen Routan from the 100 block of Old Port Isabel Road; Marco Antonio Salsas, arrested Nov. 9, for stealing a 2015 Volkswagen Passat; Jonathan Balderas, Jose Delgado and Roel Rubalcava were arrested Nov. 1 for stealing a 2016 GMC Sierra and a 2017 Ford Raptor from the Sunrise Mall parking lot and a 2016 GMC Sierra and a 2017 GMC Sierra from the 700 block of Springmart.
Alejandro Villareal was arrested Dec. 8 for stealing a 2014 Chevrolet Corvette from Sam Perl Boulevard; Javier Ortega, Eric Ray Rodriguez and Victor Pena Cardoza were arrested Dec. 28, after stealing a 2015 GMC Sierra from the 2800 block of Pablo Kisel; and most recently, Cristian Garza and Prince Julious Arnold, who were arrested Jan. 5 for stealing a 2020 GMC Sierra from McAllen that was found in Brownsville.
Balderas, Delgado, Rubalcava, Garza and Arnold were all found in possession of uncoded keys, Sandoval said.
“They would actually recode spare keys they had and that’s how they would steal the cars,” he said.
Ortega, Rodriguez, Cardoza, and Villarreal were found in possession of computers for cars “so they would just hook their instruments to the cars, and they would turn them on,” Sandoval said.
Although authorities believe this particular auto theft began operating in September, there’s a possibility that they might have been operating longer than that.
“The Task Force was not surprised as big as the ring is. The thing that was a little surprising is the technology that they were using. It’s not your normal theft ring where somebody goes in, breaks your door and kind of breaks your ignition and takes your car,” Sandoval said. “These guys actually, if you would pull them over, they would have keys, so you would actually think that it’s their car because they have a key to it.”
