Feds bust Miami ring of truckers accused of stealing loads of pork from America’s heartland

The feds had their eyes on the three tractor-trailer rigs for thousands of miles.

They weren’t suspected of hauling drugs or some other contraband.

The trucks were loaded with USDA-grade meat — tons of pork, the kind that South Floridians devour while dining on lechon, medianoche sandwiches and barbecue ribs.

At the center of the alleged meat-theft racket stretching from Omaha to Miami are three local men arrested in late October on charges of stealing $550,000 worth of pork from America’s heartland and hauling the loads across the country to South Florida, according to court records.

The three defendants — Yoslany Levya Del Sol of Hialeah, Ledier Machin Andino of Miami, and Delvis Lara Fuentes of Miami Gardens — have all been granted bail and face arraignment later this month. Their defense attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Agents with Homeland Security Investigations said in a news release that the three South Florida men ran a “highly sophisticated organized criminal enterprise” that targeted beef and pork packaging plants in Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota and Wisconsin.

In total, HSI agents said, the three Miami-based defendants may be linked to as many as 45 thefts of meat products worth $9 million across America’s heartland.

The interstate probe was launched in late June when investigators linked the three Miami-Dade men to the theft of two tractor-trailers filled with beef worth about $400,000 in Lancaster County, Nebraska, according to a criminal complaint and affidavit filed in Miami federal court.

“When law enforcement recovered the trailers, they were empty,” the Homeland Security Investigations affidavit says.

The Lancaster County sheriff’s office in Nebraska did a cellphone “tower dump” and found that all three South Florida men had made dozens of calls in the area where the tractor-trailer thefts happened and that they all had Commercial A driver’s licenses allowing them to drive semi-trucks, the affidavit says. Video surveillance also placed all three men at a truck yard in Nebraska at the time of the tractor-trailer thefts.

The sheriff’s office obtained warrants for the cellphone activities of all three men and continued to track their movements through the summer and fall.

In mid-October, investigators tracked down the three men in Tennessee, where Fuentes was driving a silver semi-tractor 2012 Peterbilt 389, with no trailer; Del Sol was driving a white semi-tractor 2007 Peterbilt, with no trailer; and Andino was driving a red/brown semi-tractor 2009 Kenworth T660, with a trailer. All of the rigs were registered in Florida, the affidavit says.

Investigators placed GPS devices on two of the rigs in Des Moines, Iowa, where the men were suspected of casing out trailers in a truck yard, the affidavit says. They were later allegedly spotted doing the same thing in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where a trailer loaded with ham worth $40,000 was reported stolen.

Their next stop was Worthington, Minnesota, where two semi-tractors with trailers and three electric pallet jacks were reported stolen, the affidavit says. Each trailer contained 22 pallets of pork worth $150,000.

On Oct. 16, according to investigators, GPS tracking showed all three men left Minnesota in their tractor-trailer rigs loaded with pork and headed for Miami.

Federal agents, with assistance from highway patrol officers, continued following their movements. Patrol officers stopped Fuentes’ rig in Tennessee, and he let them inspect his cargo. They suspected his bill of lading for the pork shipment was “falsified,” and that he appeared “visibly nervous” during questioning, according to the affidavit.

Andino and Del Sol were later stopped by patrol officers, who also suspected their bills of lading for the pork haul was falsified, the affidavit says.

The three men were arrested and their tractor-trailer rigs were seized and brought to Homeland Security Investigations’ regional office in Doral.

The allegedly stolen loads of pork, however, could not be salvaged for public health reasons, authorities said.