Homeland Security officials investigating Mexican cartels’ role in organized retail theft

EXCLUSIVE — The investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security is actively looking into Mexican, Central American, and South American-based cartels involved in organized retail theft that is plaguing U.S. retailers.

Certain transnational criminal organizations across the Western Hemisphere are either affiliated with or involved in the multibillion-dollar retail crime pandemic, according to Michael Krol, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations’s New England field office in Boston.

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“Certainly cartels that are in Mexico, South and Central America have tentacles all over the world,” Krol said during an interview with the Washington Examiner this week. “We do have some active investigations involving cartels and organized retail crime and organized theft groups. But I’m really not at liberty to speak to the names of the cartels.”

Mexican cartels have become well known for smuggling people outside the United States over the border, as well as for trafficking all types of illicit narcotics, including fentanyl, into the country.

But these and other criminal groups around the world, such as in Romania and Chile, have expanded their operations to include other money-making initiatives, including crimes in the retail environment.

“When we talk about organized retail crime, it really encompasses kind of a broad scope of criminality,” Krol said. “That could be your smaller group that might not be very organized to your larger transnational criminal organization that has a structure, has infrastructure, uses Chinese money laundering organizations to launder proceeds, are heavily involved in illicit trade, travel, and finance.”

Big or small, organized crime has hit the retail industry hard and contributed to the $112 billion total in retail losses in 2022, up from $94 billion in 2021, according to FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials who briefed House lawmakers earlier this month.

Lawmakers, including Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), have blamed the stealing epidemic on store closures. Meanwhile, retailers Walmart and Costco are looking into removing self-checkout lanes.

FBI Deputy Assistant Director of the Criminal Investigative Division Jose A. Perez told lawmakers that the agency launched an initiative targeting South American theft groups and shared intelligence with law enforcement worldwide. This specific ring consists of citizens from Chile and other South American countries who exploit tourist visas to travel to and from the U.S. to steal and then ship the goods internationally.

In fiscal 2023, which ended in September, HSI worked with the Secret Service, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to prevent suspected members of the South American and Romanian crime rings from entering the U.S., as well as go after immigrants already in the U.S. involved in organized retail theft.

“Homeland Security Investigations is laser-focused on fighting and attacking transnational criminal organizations, whether it’s cartels or criminal networks involved in financial fraud, drug smuggling, weapons trafficking, organized retail crime. It doesn’t matter what it is, any crime that affects our national border and economic security is really [under] our investigative purview,” Krol said. “We have 93 offices internationally, so when you’re talking about international organizations, we have the global reach to ensure that our transnational criminal investigative units are focused with our special agents overseas to help receive information, work with prosecutors and investigators on the international front to support our domestic field offices in investigations.”

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HSI launched “Operation Boiling Point” to educate the public about the problem, as well as connect local and state law enforcement with federal law enforcement since local police understand the extent to which theft is happening in their communities but federal agents know the upper workings of how these organizations operate.

“Our local police departments need our help. They might not see the larger picture of a criminal network,” Krol said. “What we’re trying to do is help all of our partners — state, local, federal, and industry — to kind of connect the dots here. … What we’re trying to do is direct our partners to maybe a network that’s involved in their area. If we can augment our special agents into those task forces, then certainly that’s something that will benefit not only us, but really the larger public safety sector.”