A California man has admitted to running a cross-country “crime tourism” ring that provided fraudulent vehicle rentals for foreign thieves to use as they stole nearly $24 million in luxury goods.
Juan Carlos “Pacero” Thola-Duran, 59, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, to receive and transport stolen property interstate, and to commit money laundering, and one count of structuring transactions to avoid federal financial reporting requirements in federal court Monday, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Prosecutors revealed Thola-Duran worked alongside then-girlfriend Ana Maria Arriagada to create the fabricated, Van Nuys-based rental car service, Driver Power Rentals (DPR).
Arriagada was listed as the company’s registered owner, according to federal officials. She pleaded guilty to four felonies in connection with the case last year, the DOJ said.
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Operating under the guise of the pair’s falsified business, Thola-Duran directed associates – who were often members of crime tourism theft groups from South America – to travel throughout the United States to “commit thefts, including shoplifting goods from stores, burglarizing residences and commercial businesses, and stealing victims’ credit cards and debit cards,” prosecutors said.
Thola-Duran and Arriagada then provided vehicles licensed under DPR to the various co-conspirators so they could travel to and from the burglaries, while instructing them to use fake identities to make the rental agreements look legitimate.
“Thola-Duran and Arriagada directed the thief co-conspirators who stole credit or debit cards to immediately go to stores such as Target, Best Buy, The Home Depot and others to max out the stolen cards by purchasing electronics, gift cards, designer purses and other high-end luxury goods before the stolen cards could be frozen or cancelled,” prosecutors said.
The thieves would later be instructed to deliver or mail the items to co-conspirators, who would then bring them to Thola-Duran.
Prosecutors said Thola-Duran would act as a “fence” to purchase the items for a discounted rate and pay the thieves a portion of the sales.
The items were then sold to other buyers, with Thola-Duran raking in at least $5,758,655 from various fences, including approximately $5.2 million from the bank accounts of a Van Nuys electronics exporter.
Additionally, Thola-Duran, Arriagada and others worked together to fraudulently obtain roughly $250,000 in COVID-19 business relief loans, authorities said.
Thola-Duran and his accomplices used the money to purchase various assets, including real estate and horses, according to prosecutors.
The thieves also worked to only withdraw money from their accounts in $10,000 increments, in an effort to prevent banks from reporting the amounts – as required by federal law.
Prosecutors revealed Thola-Duran’s scheme impacted at least 37 victims and resulted in roughly $23.9 million in losses.
Two alleged co-defendants, Patricia Enderton, 45, and Federico Jorge Triebel IV, 79, pleaded not guilty in the case and are set to go to trial later this year.
Thola-Duran faces the possibility of up to 55 years in federal prison when he appears for sentencing in the coming months, the DOJ said.
His guilty plea is the fourth to be secured by federal prosecutors in this case, with seven individuals facing charges stemming from the alleged crime tourism ring.
“Since 2019, we have arrested over 130 suspects responsible for perpetrating these crimes, with the vast majority using cars supplied by Driver Power Rentals,” Ventura County Sheriff James Fryhoff said in a previous press release.
“These criminals were running a burglary operation with a sophistication that rivals Amazon,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer previously said in a statement about these crime rings. “Instead of dispatching delivery drivers, they were dispatching trained thieves throughout Southern California to steal from what should be where we are safest – our homes.”
The DOJ did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.
