4 Guatemalan men targeted big box stores in multi-state thievery scheme, feds say

The Home Depot was selling the bathtub for $339.

But the two Guatemalan thiefs focused on the large box, according to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court, Providence.

The men were part of a group of Guatemalan nationals that carried out an extensive scheme of retail thievery, federal prosecutors say.

With help from two lookouts, they removed the tub and took the box to another aisle where they packed it with 120 spools of electrical wire, the affidavit says. Then, at the checkout counter, it says, one of the men paid $339 for the tub and left with thousands of dollars worth of electrical wire.

The 2022 wire haul was part of a brazen scheme targeting The Home Depot stores across New England − and beyond − by four Guatemalan men and their co-conspirators, according to the author of the affidavit, an investigator for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Special Agent Brendan Cullen.

The four men, who claimed to live in Providence, operated in small teams and collaborated within a group of as many as 15 Guatemalans to haul away items such as electrical wire, flooring, and power tools, and resell it.

Federal prosecutors accuse the larger group of more than 30 thefts dating back to July of 2019.

Cullen's affidavit accuses the four Guatemalans, who face charges in Providence, of stealing or trying to steal more than $120,000 worth of goods.

Organized retail crime in New England

The type of law-breaking described in the court records has a name.

The agency that Cullen works for, Homeland Security Investigations, calls it "organized retail crime."

Such crimes are a focus for HSI.

In February, for example, on the heels of a two-year investigation into gang violence in Boston and a wave of arrests, HSI and authorities in Massachusetts accused the Heath Street Gang of running its own organized retail theft group, which took merchandise from various stores in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, according to federal prosecutors.

The situation involving the four Guatemalan men is the first time HSI has investigated a scheme of such scale, involving foreign nationals in Rhode Island, according to an HSI spokeswoman, Kaitlyn Pote.

HSI is not aware of any other case that it has previously investigated in New England involving as many conspirators and offenses, affecting retailers in more than five states and leading to the arrest of foreign nationals, Pote said Wednesday.

The 'Target Subjects'

As Cullen worked the case, he referred to the four men who were charged late last week as the "Target Subjects."

Marvin Estuardo Morales De Paz, Abraham Dayger-Enrique, Sebastian Lajuj-Soloman and Jonathan Josue Amperez-Perez communicated with each other via WhatsApp, says Cullen's affidavit.

The affidavit accuses the men of employing a variety of tactics, often encompassing deception, to carry out thefts.

In April 2023, for example, Dayger-Enrique and Lajuj-Soloman went to The Home Depot in Warwick where they placed almost $26,000 worth of wire into two large boxes, according to the HSI investigator.

One of the boxes held both a cabinet and spools of wire when it was resealed with tape prior to checkout, HSI says. The other box, which was for a hot water heater, was filled with wire, it says. The water heater was left in the aisle.

At the checkout, Dayger-Enrique, paid only for the boxed cabinet, Cullen says, as Lajuj-Soloman simply rolled the box full of wire out of the store.

After that, both men then returned to the store.

Dayger-Enrique purchased some lumber and even seemed to obstruct the cashier's view by holding up a sheet of wood, as Lajuj-Soloman again rolled a water heater box packed with wire spools through the checkout area once again.

Warwick police arrested both men soon after, charging them with shoplifting at Kohl's. A report had led police to stop the white van, HSI says. Lajuj-Soloman ran, trying unsuccessfully to flee, says the affidavit.

A table incorporated within the affidavit lists 38 different thefts.

The table says the thefts took place mostly at The Home Depot, but also at Lowe's and Kohl's, over the course of a period dating back to July 2019 and and running through April 2, when federal agents say $900 worth of flooring was taken from The Home Depot in Smithfield.

The tabulation accounts for the theft of $238,971 in flooring, wiring, tools, appliances and other items from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, HSI says.

Morales De Paz and Dayger-Enrique employed the bathtub tactic at a Home Depot in West Roxbury, HSI says.

During that same store visit, says HSI, Morales De Paz also loaded spools of wire into two boxes that held cabinets.

After he paid for the tub, as well as about $1,130 for the two cabinets, the group left the store with almost $18,000 worth of stolen wire, says HSI.

An hour later, one of the other conspirators returned one cabinet for a cash refund at a Home Depot in Norwood. A report by The Home Depot staff says another co-conspirator went to the Mansfield Home Depot with the $339 tub receipt, from the other store, and left the store with the identical bathtub without paying.

The next day, back at the West Roxbury Home Depot once again, Boston police arrested Dayger-Enrique, Amperez-Perez and four other men who also identified as Guatemalan nationals and claimed to live in Providence.

As of April 9, says HSI, Morales De Paz had been accused of retail theft at least four times and arrested in three states. Dayger-Enrique had been arrested four times while Lajuj-Soloman had been arrested on four occasions, HSI says.

Recent raids followed by arrests

Raids that federal agents carried out last week, at homes in Cranston and Providence, led to the seizure of $11,000 worth of goods stolen from The Home Depot and Kohl's as well as $83,000 in cash and a Ford 2019 F150 truck, prosecutors say.

On Friday, all three men were arrested in Rhode Island and held following appearances in federal court. Amperez-Perez was arrested in Pennsylvania and held.

Morales De Paz, who has been deported from the U.S. twice, is in the country illegally, prosecutors say. His detention order, signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Patricia A. Sullivan, says that when he was arrested on April 11, he tried to run and had to be tackled.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Feds say Guatemalan conspiracy targeted Home Depot stores in northeast