Federal authorities have charged eight men with a multiyear, multi-state scheme to steal beer from trains and distribution facilities.
Prosecutors say the group of men, to whom they refer collectively as the “Beer Theft Enterprise,” committed dozens of beer heists in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York from July 2022 until March 2024.
The beer the group is accused of stealing was primarily Corona and Modelo shipped from Mexico, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
For a typical theft, crew members purportedly drove a vehicle to a target location so that it could be piled high with beer. To gain access, holes were cut into fences surrounding target facilities and trainyards, and the locks of railroad cars were also cut, prosecutors claimed.
The stolen beer was then taken to the Bronx to be sold. Each crew member involved in a heist, USAO-SDNY alleges, were paid hundreds of dollars for their assistance.
“Train heists harken back to the days of the Wild West … The romanticized image has nothing to do with the modern-day criminals we allege took part in a theft ring … They used the cover of night to cut through fencing, off-load pallets of beer, and sold off the stolen goods, costing the victims’ companies hundreds of thousands of dollars,” FBI Special Agent-in-Charge James Dennehy said in a statement.
Jose Cesari, 27, Kemar Bonitto, 38, Wakiem Johnson, 31, Deylin Martinez-Guerrero, 28, Miguel Cintron, 32, Antonio Gonzalez, 33, Luis Izquierdo, 40, and Justin Bruno, 23, are charged with “conspiracy to steal from interstate or foreign shipments by carrier, and to break and enter carrier facilities with intent to commit larceny therein.”
Authorities named Mr. Cesari as the ringleader of the “Beer Theft Enterprise.” If found guilty, the men could receive up to five years in prison.
All eight defendants hail from the Bronx, according to the New York Times.
All defendants except Mr. Martinez-Guerrero also face a charge of theft from interstate or foreign shipments. Mr. Cesari is charged on three counts of that crime.
The maximum sentence on that charge is 10 years in prison.
In addition, Mr. Cesari is charged with one count each of Hobbs Act robbery, conspiracy to commit such a robbery, and of “using or carrying a firearm during and in relation to, or possessing a firearm in furtherance of, a crime of violence.”
The Hobbs Act outlaws “actual or attempted robbery or extortion affecting interstate or foreign commerce,” the Justice Department states.
Only Mr. Cesari faces Hobbs Act-related charges because, prosecutors stated in the indictment, he used a gun in late April 2023 to rob a train car in Queens, which falls under that act. The other seven men are accused only of theft without violence.
For both Hobbs Act-related charges, Mr. Cesari faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for each count.
On the firearm charge, Mr. Cesari faces a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.