Eight men have been charged by federal authorities with stealing numerous cases of beer from train cars and other facilities across the Northeast over the course of nearly two years.
Prosecutors with the Southern District of New York said Wednesday that the men carried out dozens of beer heists in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts between about July 2022 and March 2024, costing beverage distributors at least hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Under cover of darkness, the men would usually gather in the Bronx, then set out for a given night's target, according to the SDNY complaint. Once they arrived, they'd usually cut a hole in a fence surrounding the location, and/or cut the lock to railroad cars, to access sealed pallets of cases of beer, usually Coronoa or Modelo shipped in from Mexico.
Once brought back to a gathering point in the Bronx, the men would inspect the cases and subsequently sell them.
Prosecutors said the heist teams were paid hundreds of dollars for a given night's work.
One of the charged men accused of being a leader, Jose Cesari, known as "Cry," would post on Instagram seeking recruits for the ring, advertising the ability to make "$100K+ in a month” by following what he described as “the beer train method.”
Cesari is also accused of using a police scanner to monitor potential police activity, and was found to be in possession of a firearm that he brandished, according to the complaint.
The men face seven federal criminal counts, including charges under the 1946 Hobbs Act governing interference with interstate commerce, equating to decades of prison time.
“Train heists harken back to the days of the Wild West and gunslingers riding horses, stealing loot from rail cars," FBI Special Agent in Charge James E. Dennehy said in a statement. "The romanticized image has nothing to do with the modern-day criminals we allege took part in a theft ring in New Jersey, New York, and beyond that targeted railyards and beverage distribution centers."
A spokesperson for rail group CSX, which owns one of the railyards targeted by the suspects, also issued a statement:
“CSX is committed to protecting the safety of its property and that of its customers. We take criminal activity very seriously. Railyards are privately owned property and unauthorized activity is considered criminal trespassing and violators will be prosecuted."
It was not clear whether the suspects had obtained legal representation. SDNY reps did not immediately respond to a request for information from NBC News.
