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Bay Area authorities have broken up what they describe as a massive laptop computer theft ring responsible for hundreds of car burglaries in the region, built on an alliance between a notorious street gang and fencers who swiftly moved the contraband to Vietnam.

The scheme was so pervasive that if someone broke into your car and stole a laptop, smartphone or tablet computer over the past month in the South Bay, East Bay, or Peninsula, there’s a decent chance it’s sitting in an evidence storage room.

Law-enforcement officials announced charges Wednesday against nine residents from San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco alleging conspiracy and buying or receiving stolen property in connection with the theft of upward of 2,000 laptop computers and other high-end electronics valued at more than $2 million.

Fremont police led the months-long investigation while working with the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, the South Bay-based REACT tech-crime task force, and Homeland Security Investigations. While most of the recovered items are believed to have been stolen locally, investigators have traced some victims to as far as Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

“The whole Bay Area’s been affected by auto burglaries,” Fremont police Lt. Mike Tegner said. “We’ve devoted a lot of resources to disrupt this crime in our community. This (case) was definitely surprising, with how sophisticated and organized it was, and where everything ended up.”

The key broker of the alleged scheme, 28-year-old Oakland resident Carlos Humberto Paz, is being held without bail in the Elmwood jail facility in Milpitas.

Other defendants are also in custody at Elmwood without bail: Hung Can On, 51, of San Jose, who allegedly housed contraband in a North San Jose storage space; Benjamin Quoc Pham, 44, of San Jose, accused along with 31-year-old San Jose resident Huong Thithanh Tran of buying stolen laptops in a parking lot in Little Saigon in San Jose; and San Francisco residents Rony Martinez, 44, and Cinthia Quiroz Martinez, 38, accused of working with Carlos Paz to fence stolen laptop computers.

Three other charged conspirators were out of custody: 33-year-old San Francisco Marvin Paz — associated with Carlos Paz’s alleged fencing operation — and San Jose residents Quoc Chi Nguyen, 40, and Luan Huynh, 30, accused of loading stolen laptops into trucks headed for the Port of Oakland so they could be shipped overseas.

The investigation was spurred by multiple Bay Area law-enforcement agencies charting a surge in vehicle burglaries across the region dating back to last summer. Fremont police recorded a 35 percent increase in car break-ins last year.

Marisa McKeown, a Santa Clara County supervising deputy district attorney for her office’s Crime Strategies Unit, said the problem had gotten so bad that local repair shops were experiencing a shortage in auto-grade glass to replace broken windows.

The multi-agency probe traced recent suspected auto-burglary activity, by known East Bay gang members, to a suspected fence — or broker of stolen goods — in San Francisco. Through surveillance and and other investigations, they uncovered an alleged scheme where Paz paid cash for stolen laptop computers, then brought them to San Jose to re-sell them.

That led to a storage facility on Mabury Road in San Jose, where on multiple occasions in the first week of December authorities say they followed and watched Carlos Paz meet with Nguyen, and later observed Nguyen and Huynh loading stolen laptop computers into a tractor-trailer on the grounds. On Dec. 8, investigators contacted Nguyen and Huynh, who reportedly consented to a search of two storage units that uncovered several stolen laptop computers.

That same day, Fremont police followed a related tractor-trailer and conducted a traffic stop on Interstate 880 in Fremont. The stop and ensuing search led to the seizure of more than 900 laptop computers, according to the criminal complaint filed against the defendants.

Police determined that the computers were being driven to the Port of Oakland “to be unloaded and shipped overseas” to Vietnam, the complaint reads. The investigation also led to the identification of On as the renter of one of the storage units.

The alleged crimes that were charged in Santa Clara County Superior Court date back to December, but investigators believe that the international theft scheme has been in operation for far longer.

“The trucker was making monthly drops,” McKeown said.

Around the same time that the storage facility was being investigated, authorities also monitored Carlos Paz, Marvin Paz, Rony Martinez and Cinthia Martinez conduct several separate transactions with Pham and Tran involving stolen laptop computers on at least three occasions in December at a parking lot at McLaughlin Avenue and Story Road in San Jose, in what is known as the Little Saigon district.

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Pham and Tran were reportedly looking to fly out of San Francisco International Airport on Jan. 25 with 18 pieces of luggage when they were intercepted by police, and were alleged to have at least 300 stolen laptop computers in their baggage. An ensuing search of Pham’s San Jose home turned 700 stolen laptops, authorities said.

Most of the arrests were made Jan. 25 and 26, according to jail records. Some of the computers had been stolen as recently as last week, McKeown said, who lauded the methodical work that led to the bust.

“This is such unbelievably disciplined police work,” she said.

And police say there is still more to come.

“This is definitely not the end of this investigation,” Tegner said. “There will be more arrests coming.”

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Anyone with information about the case can contact Fremont police at 510-790-6900 or Detective Antonino Stillitano at AStillitano@fremont.gov, or leave an anonymous tip by sending a text message starting with “TIP FREMONTPD” to 888-777, or online at local.nixle.com/ tip/alert/6216337.

RECOVERING STOLEN PROPERTY

Fremont police are currently working to reunite stolen electronics seized in a bust from the past month with their rightful owners, primarily by connecting product serial numbers with burglary and theft reports. Anyone who believes their electronic devices were among those recovered is advised to do the following:

If you haven’t reported your car break-in and theft, file a report with the law-enforcement agency of the city or county where the crime occurred. They can be filed retroactively, and many departments allow this to be done online.

Make sure the police report includes a product serial number of the stolen item if possible.

If you already filed a police report but did not include an available serial number, amend the report with the serial number.

SOURCE: Fremont Police Dept.