Shoplifting rings target drugstores all over Houston

(11/30/05 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- Organized crime is active in Houston and police say the crooks are everywhere. They're ripping off stores, driving up prices and then selling the loot right back to the victims -- with the profits paying the bills for groups like the violent gang MS 13.

It's shoplifting, but on a scale never before seen here. Police say the scheme costs Houston businesses a million dollars every month. It is a problem so widespread that law enforcement is at times helpless to stop it. A million dollars a month in Houston means $30 billion a year nationwide. Chances are it's going on right now and costing you money every time you buy over the counter drugs.

"There isn't a store in Houston they haven't hit," said Detective Dan Frazee with the Harris County Sheriff's department.

Shoplifters were caught on tape at a Kroger brazenly loading thousands of dollars worth of over the counter medications in a bag before bolting for the door. They are just a few of the thieves working in Houston every day.

Sgt. Johnnie Jezierski with the Texas Department of Public Safety predicted, "It'll be in the hundreds today."

There is nothing tricky about the operation. Thieves walk in the front door of a drug store, empty a shelf of the products they want and walk out. It's shipped to a middleman warehouse, repackaged and then resold to legitimate drug stores across the country, making stores almost powerless to stop it.

Thieves can make up to $5,000 a day. The warehouse middle men make far more. The money often ends up in the hands of Latin American gangs.

Det. Frazee said, "We learned during the investigation that some of this is connected to MS-13."

The rings have specific shopping lists. They know exactly what the underworld will pay for Tylenol, Rogaine, Pepcid, Prilosec, Nicorette, diabetes test strips and other items.

Drug stores know it's going on. In fact, some clerks recognize the thieves on sight. To slow them down some stores have locked drugs up.

That slowed them down, but didn't stop them. Crooks found a key in one store and it opened locks across town

The thefts have been going on for years. But just recently dozens of suspects  men, women and children -- have been arrested. The bust made a dent in the problem but simply can't stop it.

The thieves can get arrested, but by the time they're taken to jail and the case goes to court they've probably already served all the time they're going to. Misdemeanor theft is such a low level crime, they basically walk out of jail free.

"They know the system very well and take advantage of it," explained Sgt. Jezierski.

The crooks are out there today. Chances are they'll be running out of a store, costing you cash tomorrow.

" It's not going to end," said Det. Frazee.

We're told the thieves work six days a week. They told cops they take Sundays off for religious reasons. Go figure.

Detectives know there is a connection between the thieves and the Honduran MS 13 gang. The director of the FBI has also drawn links to Middle Eastern terror networks, although that is much harder to prove. According to published reports, the feds apparently traced money to the mid east but the trail unraveled there.

Detectives tell us there is little, if any, risk to the public. The crime rings apparently don't tamper with the medications at all. This is a money maker for the crime rings, and tampered products can't be sold.
(Copyright © 2005, KTRK-TV)

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