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Grapevine police bust multimillion-dollar crime ring
In May, Grapevine police say the thieves hit a warehouse and stole half a million dollars worth of Ray-Ban sunglasses and VR headsets. In total, police believe the group stole $10 million worth of merchandise across several heists.
GRAPEVINE, Texas - Police in Grapevine arrested seven people in what they're calling a multimillion-dollar crime ring targeting warehouses across North Texas.
Their latest heist involved cutting a hole into a warehouse to steal nearly $500,000 in goods.
The investigation revealed a larger operation that covered several North Texas cities.
Grapevine police believe the group has been active for at least a year. When police learned that other cities reported similar crimes, they were able to put the pieces together and arrest the seven suspects.
Grapevine police announced the arrests of seven people on Monday:
- Adrian Ellison, 38, of Dallas
- Julius Green, 40, of Dallas
- Willie Hill, 38, of Dallas
- Eric White, 33, of Dallas
- Fayzal Kara, 40, of Carrollton
- Ronnie Vaden, 33, of Dallas
- Derrick White, 38, of Dallas
Investigators say the group targeted warehouses that stored high-end electronics like cell phones.
In May, Grapevine police say the suspects hit a warehouse and stole half a million dollars worth of Ray-Ban sunglasses and VR headsets.
Surveillance video from inside the warehouse shows one of the suspects putting boxes through a small hole in the garage door.
"With this specific group, and the methods vary a little bit, but there’s only a certain amount of ways to get in. But they were cutting holes in the garage doors," explained Grapevine Police Sgt. Oscar Ramirez.
The group also stole a box truck next door to the warehouse to stash the stolen goods and get away.
Grapevine police compiled all their information and sent it out to neighboring departments. Detectives in Plano, Coppell and Fort Worth reported the same types of burglaries in their cities.
"They just know their equipment," Ramirez said. "So they get comfortable with what they're doing and how they’re doing it."
Police were getting acquainted with the group’s patterns as well.
Detectives used surveillance video and drones to track the suspects’ movements. They also tracked license plates on certain cars believed to be involved and the stolen box truck.
"We know that they have these lookouts," said Ramirez. "So we ourselves do this kind of counter surveillance on them, knowing that they had targeted areas. We would go out at night and surveil them."
In August, Grapevine police tried to intercept a burglary in progress. The suspects got away, but one of them was caught later that night.
The other arrests happened between August and November.
Cellphone records played a key role in connecting the suspects to the crimes.
"In this specific case, those are the people that we could specifically link to physically and either as a lookout or being involved in the theft or being involved in the disbursement of the items after the theft."
The seven men are all facing felony charges for engaging in organized criminal activity.
"We are ecstatic that we could get one for the good guys and put these people in jail, hopefully for a long time," Ramirez said.
In total, police believe the group stole $10 million worth of merchandise.
They are not actively searching for any other suspects right now.