Crime investigators: Organized retail crime is 'complex fraud'

It's important for police and businesses to have a united front to address retail crime, according to a professional who investigates retail crime at a major drug store chain.

The New Mexico Organized Retail Crime Association hosted its second annual conference last month. NMORCA is a partnership between the New Mexico Chamber of Commerce, retail companies and law enforcement across the state of New Mexico.

Andrew Hidalgo is Walmart's market asset protection manager. He was on a panel at the NMORCA conference on Sept. 27.

He said it's a myth that organized retail crime is only shoplifting.

NMORCA describes organized retail crime as a sort of pyramid structure with boosters, or shoplifters, being on the bottom. Boosters sell stolen products to fences. Fences then turn around and sell the stolen product to people who do not know it's stolen.

If the scheme is big enough there could be an organizer and that organizer may be part of a network.

Jake Crank, a major crimes investigator at Walgreens, was on a retail resource panel at the conference.

“Organized crime is similar to the mafia,” said Crank.

He said that most people have a narrow idea of what organized retail crime is. But he said it's "everything from fraudulent returns, embezzlement, cargo theft, shoplifting rings of traveling groups, online fraud — there's a bunch."

Hidalgo said certain products are stolen more often than others.

“All types of merchandise, everything from baby formula to Tide — one of the most common ones — to trading cards,” Hidalgo said.

Brian Barratt, a field investigator at Target, shared similar sentiments as Crank.

“This is complex fraud that they’re using to manipulate systems,” said Barratt.

The panelists said to investigate crime, some businesses use in-house retail crime intelligence. Hidalgo said things like license plates and names of suspected shoplifters across multiple different store franchises are loaded onto a platform and shared.

“All the information we put on any subject, it's going to automatically combine and link those cases,” Hidalgo said.

A suspect can be charged in multiple shoplifting cases and, once the total retail value form all the thefts is added up, charged with a more serious crime, per New Mexico law.

“Organized retail crime is a gateway crime," Crank said.