Five Dallas-area men are charged with the theft of hundreds of guns from UPS trucks in Missouri last year.

UPS employees in Springfield, Mo., discovered on Oct. 29 that a number of Beretta firearms had been stolen from trucks on their lot.

The trucks had been parked back to back and blocked by other trailers to prevent access to the trailer doors, according to court documents, but "the thieves hot-wired two truck-tractors and used them to push and pull various trailers around the lot."

Six hundred .380-caliber handguns and 54 12-gauge shotguns had been stolen from the Beretta shipment. Also missing from the UPS lot were a pallet of Justin boots, power tools and 12 cases of soda.

Investigators learned the next day that a box truck had been stolen from a Springfield moving company; that truck was located in Seagoville in early November. Authorities also used cellphone-tower records to link five North Texas men to the theft: Quinton Haywood, 26, of Glenn Heights; Keith Lowe, 28, of Dallas; Frank McChriston, 33, of Ponder; Derrick White, 32, of Arlington; and Eric White, 26, Arlington.

From left: Quinton Jamal Haywood, Keith Edward Lowe, Frank McChriston, Derrick Dewayne White, Eric Lavon White. (Greene County Sheriff's Office, Dallas County Sheriff's Department)

The Whites were detained in November at the Redneck Heaven restaurant and bar in Arlington on outstanding warrants related to a similar theft of tires in Corrigan in southeast Texas in 2016.

Both denied ever being in Springfield, according to court documents; Derrick White said he was "developing a line of urban apparel," and Eric White said he earned a living playing poker. Authorities found a gun from the stolen shipment in Derrick White's car.

Haywood and Lowe were both arrested at their homes on unrelated theft warrants, according to court documents, and they also denied being in Springfield. But authorities reported matching DNA from Haywood to the stolen box truck and DNA from Lowe to a knife found at the UPS facility.

Police in Oklahoma also reported stopping McChriston and the Whites in a Toyota Yaris about 24 hours before the gun theft. Surveillance footage from a Dallas storage facility hours after the theft showed a similar car as well as the stolen box truck, according to court documents.

The men each face one charge of aiding and abetting the theft of firearms being shipped across state lines and one charge of aiding and abetting the possession of stolen firearms.

McChriston remains in the Dallas County jail awaiting extradition to Missouri. Haywood, Lowe and the Whites were being held Friday at the Green County, Mo., jail without bail.

Most of the stolen firearms have not been recovered.