7 defendants charged in $5 million 'crime tourism' theft ring based in Van Nuys – Whittier Daily News

A Santa Clarita Valley man accused of leading a gang of “criminal tourism” thieves from South America who committed burglaries and thefts across the country, illicitly stealing more than $5 million, was among seven people taken into custody early Wednesday, Aug. 28, to face a 46-count federal indictment, law enforcement authorities said.

An open grand jury indictment accuses Juan Carlos Thola-Duran and six other co-defendants of committing a variety of federal crimes, including wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and structuring transactions to evade federal financial reporting requirements.

According to a statement from law enforcement officials, criminal tourism gangs consist of people from abroad, often from South America, who enter the United States and “commit burglaries, thefts and other crimes.”

The fruits of the thefts are passed on to “middlemen and co-conspirators” who help them, prosecutors say. Thola-Duran and his co-defendants are accused of being among these middlemen. Federal prosecutors describe them as “quarterbacks for a team of thieves.”

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“This group essentially acted as a hub for South American criminal tourists who wanted to come to our country and exploit our freedoms to steal from the American people,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said at a press conference Wednesday morning.

From 2018 to 2024, the group of defendants helped organize and carry out about 120 burglaries and thefts in 80 cities across the country, including Los Angeles and Orange counties, Estrada said.

“The losses to these individuals and businesses amount to well over $35 million,” Estrada said.

The indictment states that Thola-Duran, a 57-year-old resident of Canyon Country in the Santa Clarita Valley, and his partner, 41-year-old Ana Maria Arriagada, operated Driver Power Rentals, an automobile business based in Van Nuys.

Estrada said Driver Power Rentals “only deals with crooks.” Criminal tourists would go to the parking lot, be provided with a vehicle and be shown where to commit thefts. Thola-Duran and Arriagada required crooks to provide false identification in order to obtain a vehicle.

“If you came to them with a valid ID, they would turn you away. In this way they tried to maintain a certain distance from the crimes that were taking place there,” Estrada said.

From at least January 2018 to July 2024, according to the indictment, Thola-Duran lured members of crime tourism groups to various parts of the United States to commit thefts. According to prosecutors, these included shoplifting, home and business burglaries, and credit card thefts.

Thola-Duran and Arriagada provided the thieves with Driver Power Rentals vehicles, prosecutors allege, and arranged for them to deliver stolen goods to company employees. Thola-Duran also served as a fence, prosecutors allege, and was willing to buy the illegally obtained goods at a fraction of their retail value.

Thola-Duran and Arriagada instructed credit card thieves to max out their credit cards by purchasing gift cards or high-end luxury items at Target, Best Buy, Home Depot and other stores, officials said.

They would then be instructed to return the illegal goods to the car rental business or instructed to send them to other parties, prosecutors said.

Also arrested were Miguel Angel Barajas, 57, of Northridge, and John Carlos Thola, 33, of Canoga Park, who prosecutors said picked up packages and delivered them to Thola-Duran.

Thola-Duran then sold the stolen goods to other buyers for about $5.5 million during the course of the conspiracy, prosecutors said. Thola-Duran and his co-defendants used the money to buy real estate and horses, among other things, the indictment says.

“The destruction and impact this is having on Southern California and the nation is unacceptable and intolerable,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer, adding that the criminals used Driver Power Rentals to obtain cars that would help them blend into the communities they ravaged.

“They have no shame, no compassion. They are here for one reason only,” Spitzer said. “To cause chaos and devastation.”

Mayor Karen Bass said she had spoken to residents in areas like the San Fernando Valley who were “terrorized and frightened by what happened” and hoped the announcement of the arrests would provide relief to those residents.

She added that the announcement of the arrests “is not the end of our work, it continues.”

Akil Davis, FBI deputy director general and head of the Los Angeles field office, said investigations into gangs of thieves typically target “a layer of saliva in a very, very large wheel.”

“The difference in this investigation is that the Major Thefts Task Force … targeted the entire wheel,” he said.