The image is not in sepia or black and white. Nor from a movie, but the story does seem out of outsiders, inspired by. In the last two years, criminal groups have risen to moving charging trains in full route through the Arizona desert, in the United States, and have docked them up to 10 times. These outlaws do not dress as, but they also look for a booty:, from the Nike brand, and electronic devices that, for their value and the stolen volume, shine like gold. According to documents from a court in Arizona, US federal agents have seized around two million dollars in merchandise that is believed to be stolen from the cargo railroads of the Company Burlington Northern & Santa Fe (BNSF). The main suspect, according to Washington, is the Sinaloa poster.
The complaints of agents of the investigation unit of the United States National Security Department (Homeland Security Investigation or HSI, for its acronym in English), dating from August 2024 and January 2025, ensure that these groups of individuals carried out their criminal operation with broad connections throughout, Arizona and. The suspects, with the notice and complicity of associates working in warehouses or transport companies, pointed to high value containers in the BNSF rail line.
They took advantage of the change of rails or a railway stop to climb to the units. Once up, they were looking for containers with visible high security locks and used reciprocal electric mountains or shear with which metal plates are cold, to open the containers.
The defendants cut the air hose from the train brake system, causing an emergency stop. Thus they discharged the stolen goods and hid them in the plain or between shrubs adjacent to the roads. They warned, through cell phones, about the location of the merchandise so that they could collect it at the moment or later, if there were security forces in the surroundings.
At the same time, on the road, a surveillance team followed the train hoping to know the location of the merchandise. Once the site was confirmed, load trucks, of different tonnage and model, picked up the stolen and took it from Arizona to California to store it and market it on platforms such as and EBAY.
In this last wave of assault on trains, released first by, at least 10 robberies have been reported since March of last year, in which it is estimated that approximately the value of two million dollars in merchandise of the sports brand has been stolen. As part of the monitoring operation, in some containers tracking devices were installed. Thanks to this, on January 13, different security forces arrested the alleged criminals in two vehicles that transported more than 1,900 pairs of shoes that were not yet available in the market. The value amounted to more than $ 440,000.
A leader, many identities
Eleven people of Mexican nationality, some originating in Sinaloa, were arrested in that operation. Ten of them did not reside legally in the United States and one was in asylum. According to the authorities on the other side of the border, they are, allegedly, part of the once criminal organization headed by, aka El Chapo. “It is believed that these robberies are related to an international criminal union based in the Mexican state of Sinaloa,” says the complaint.
The senator for the state of Indiana Todd Young who during the apprehension of these individuals “The researchers found links with the Mexican poster.” “Federal authorities have linked this with a federal poster that operates in Sinaloa,” he said.
Although the detainees had already given previous blows, another HSI agent announced that this form of theft of the BNSF trains was in charge of Arturo N, aka Pollo. It was the one who controlled these crews. He provided them with vehicles to commit the robberies and facilitated the sale of goods. According to the accusation, this man has been committing these crimes for 11 years.
The HSI information announced that between February 2022 and June 2024, Chicken, with one of its other three pseudonyms, made 260,000 dollars.
On May 7, 2024, more than a month before his arrest – which occurred on June 20 of that same year – installed a tracker on one of the load trucks in which Antonio N. transported the stolen merchandise. He guides them to an empty storage unit, but that had been rented under one of his aka. One of the detectives got the photo of the driver’s license with which he rented the space. According to the description of the image, Chicken used a cap with the colors of the Mexican flag. A reference to the initials of the Chapo already in the list of billionaires of the magazine Forbes. “I know that individuals who idolize the narrative around the narco, such as JGL 701, and the criminal elements that surround it are usually involved in similar behaviors,” an HSI agent said in the complaint.
That track allowed registration orders to be issued for 11 houses and 16 storage units in California linked To the robberies. This operation resulted in the arrest of 43 people, in the seizure of 41 vehicles, more than 300 tons of and 17 firearms.
Set aside reactive diplomacy
Before, accusations and that have come to light by executive agencies of the United States, before the Trump administration, Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, head of the North American Observatory in the global initiative against transnational organized crime, sees important, so that there is an optimal binational relationship, which works on evidence and set aside.
The specialist in organized crime in Mexico is concerned about the argument that having less money for the transfer of migrants or, criminal groups are looking for other areas of income. “We listen to it frequently, but it is not necessarily sustained in evidence,” he explains by video call.
Within that dynamic, it highlights the importance of Mexico getting evidence and publishing them. To show how these illegal markets work and that normally, especially in the border region, involve citizens of both countries. “It seems to me that a first step is to get out of this world where everything is reagent. Where what is being done is how to respond to the next crisis and return to this more institutional framework where you have agreed what the issues are and how they are going to work and who will work them,” he says.
The judicial processes against these detainees will continue their course. At the moment, however, modern trains theft is in force in Arizona, because although the sneakers or electronic artifacts do not shine like gold, for some they are a treasure.
