Task Force Busts Alleged Work Van Theft Ring (Updated)

Authorities on Wednesday were seeking four people in connection with a vehicle-theft case that has already resulted in 11 arrests of suspects accused of stealing work vans from plumbers, painters, landscapers and construction workers in the South Bay and Long Beach.

The arrests on June 13 culminated a 9-month investigation into a "criminal organization" that would offload the tools and equipment, sell the stolen vans, or in some cases chop them up and sell them as scrap metal, according to Sgt. Rich Pena of the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau.

The arrests were made throughout Long Beach and South Los Angeles over the weekend, Pena said.

The investigation by a task force consisting of personnel from the sheriff's department, California Highway Patrol and Long Beach and Los Angeles police departments resulted in 55 felony counts being filed by authorities against the 11 suspects and four others who remain at large, Pena said.

The four wanted suspects were identified as Robert Madia, Adam Kim, Byran Godinez and Willie Bartsman, Pena said.

The arrested suspects are Thomas Hernandez, Raymond Gonzalez, Katia M. Alvarado, Mariano D. Lopez, Gerald Deegan, Shane Toseland, Tiffanie Ledesma, Edward McCrimmon, Michael Sartor, Grace Barrett and Victor M. Vergara, he said.

Most of the suspects were homeless and lived in central and north Long Beach, Pena said.

More than 25 vehicles were recovered. Many of them were stolen from the South Bay area—including Redondo Beach—but at least one was stolen in Las Vegas, he said.

—City News Service.