Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio.

In the spring of twenty fifteen, Oregon based snack manufacturer Bridgetown Natural Foods was expecting a shipment of almonds worth roughly one hundred and eighty four thousand dollars, but the delivery never arrived.

The forty two thousand pounds shipment had been picked up as scheduled on April thirteenth from Sunny Gem, an almond supplier in Wasco, California, but somewhere in between pickup and drop off, the almonds went missing and presumed stolen.

Authorities had no luck tracking down the cargo, and Bridgetown Natural Foods filed a lawsuit against Sunny Gem and a freight management company, Left Coast Logistics, seeking a declaration that it owed nothing for the shipment it didn't receive.

Almonds it turns out are super hot.

Welcome to Criminalia, where we're talking about nutjobs.

I know, I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself.

I'm Maria Tremarki.

And I'm Holly Frye.

Commercial nut heists have become common in California.

Central California produces ninety eight percent of the United States, pistachio supply, ninety nine percent of US walnuts, and eighty percent of the world's almonds, plus a small percentage of pecans are grown there, and the state processes imported cashews as well.

People steal nuts because they're worth a lot of money, or they can be.

In twenty thirteen, CBS Sacramento reported that the price of tree nuts more than tripled over just a few years, from sixty cents to two dollars a pound.

That means the combined value of California's almonds, walnuts, and pistachios is nearly nine and a half billion dollars.

Almonds alone make up nearly six billion of that total, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

That's a lot of nuts, and that's a lot of money.

Roger Isiam, president of the Western Agricultural Processors Association, a California based trade group representing the tree nut processing industry, stated that quote demand is being driven by the growing middle classes in China and India.

Here in the States, more people are including nuts into their diet for health reasons.

These are very valuable crops.

In the early two thousands, almond trees were highlighted in media reports for their impact on California's drought.

It takes an average of one point one gallons of water to produce just one nut.

The associated large and impressive industry numbers that went along with that news, stated Abi Kulkarni, assistant director for technical support for the California Walnut Board, quote got us some unwonted attention from cargo.

Thieves money plus demand.

It may not surprise you to hear that nut heists spiked, and it happened noticeably between twenty fourteen and twenty seventeen.

According to cargo Net, a New Jersey based company that tracks cargo theft, as well as an alliance of cargo shipping firms and law enforcement agencies aimed at preventing these losses, large scale nut theft hid an all time high in the state of California in twenty fifteen, with losses from reported thefts totally more than four and a half million dollars that year.

That's more than the total loss of the three previous years combined, generally speaking, and that's because the market fluctuates.

Prices for one ton of almonds specifically can range anywhere from one thousand to six thousand dollars depending on shelling grade, origin, and some specific varieties have a greater demand.

Stated Roger Isam on this wave of heists.

Quote all we've seen in the past is in orchard theft, where guys take a bucket and then go sell them at the farmer's market.

We've never seen anything like this of the phenomenon.

Mike Boudreau, the sheriff of Tularry County in California's Central Valley, stated, quote, it's not your guy on the corner in the long jacket selling knockoff Rolex watches, and he said that because this is big.

Colleen Cecil, executive director of the Butte County Farm Bureau, emphasized that while nuts have a very high market value in recent years, they're also quote an exported commodity.

Seventy five percent of Butte County's nut crop is legally destined for overseas markets, a factor that can make them even more attractive to cargo thieves.

Let's travel back to July of two thousand, when the first of these large scale heists caught the industry off guard.

Two men were accused of attempting to obscond with nut cargo after showing up at an almond and pistachio distribution center just as drivers to pick up shipments.

Later that same year, a man in central California was arrested and charged in a pistachio heist valued at more than two hundred and ninety four thousand dollars.

But it was on July fourth, two thousand and six in Ripon, California, after two truckloads of almonds were stolen a total of eighty eight thousand pounds and estimated to be worth a quarter of a million dollars, that this really caught everyone's attention.

In two thousand and six, that kind of nut heeist stood out, but it was just the beginning.

The heists accelerated.

In October of twenty twelve, two truckloads of walnuts, one containing processed nuts and the other unprocessed, were stolen from the Crane Walnut Shelling Company in Los Molinos, California.

The walnuts never reached their intended destinations of Florida and Texas, and the combined financial loss was estimated at three hundred thousand dollars.

Also in twenty twelve, two truckloads left Diamond Foods Stockton facilities and never reached their intended destinations.

In twenty thirteen, Butte County Sheriff's officials stated they were able to track a stolen shipment of nuts it's worth two hundred thousand dollars to the Los Angeles area, and that documents and devices seized during that investigation indicated those nuts were illegally bound for somewhere in eastern Europe.

Investigators also confirmed to media outlets at that time that they suspected Armenian crime links to the thefts, that didn't elaborate because of their ongoing investigation.

Just two years later, in twenty fifteen, California nut growers reported a whopping thirty two stolen loads, with each heist reportedly yielding an average of more than two hundred thousand dollars worth of nuts.

Said Roger Eism when these thefts were happening, quote, this is not anything we've really seen before.

We've experienced thirty thefts in the last six months.

Similarly, Detective Matt Calkins of the Butte County Sheriff's Office stated, quote, there are people with pickup trucks on down to people with buckets trying to steal walnuts and other crops, but it's fairly onc for us to receive reports of this magnitude.

On June nineteenth, twenty twenty one, another high profile heist occurred.

A California man employed by Monte Mayor Trucking was arrested after being accused of stealing a tractor trailer carrying forty thousand pounds of pistachios, a theft the central California food processing business Touched and Pistachio Company discovered while they were doing a routine audit.

California grower Skip Phobiano told CBS, quote, the theft is getting bad.

You'll see more fences going up around fields.

It's gotten worse lately because the price of walnuts is so much higher.

Now his company secures their equipment, has installed twenty four hour security, and now locks nut filled bins as well.

He continued, quote, there's trucks that come in with phony paperwork.

They'll hook up a trailer, sign out and then take off.

And he's right.

Nut napping is often carried out in that way.

Heis what's happened through fraud, not force.

We're going to take a break for word from our sponsors.

When we're back, we'll talk about how sophisticated these nut heists can be.

Welcome back to criminalia.

Experts say California's tree nut industry is being targeted with the same criminal aggressiveness as cargo trucks filled with expensive electronic devices were in previous years, and when it comes to nuts, it really adds.

Up of these California nut crimes.

Lance Reeve, risk management, consultant for the Nationwide Insurance Firm's agribusiness division, stated at the time quote, it does appear there is an uptick in insider activity or organized activities that are involved in these thefts.

Food shipments, he explained, are an attract target because they are difficult to identify as stolen, they're easy to resell, and they're not historically as vigorously investigated as thefts of higher value items, at least until now.

The majority of cargo thefts happen when trucks are left unattended at unsecured truck stops or at other parking areas with minimal security, and as California grower fo Piano stated, sometimes thieves don't bother with any paperwork at all.

Instead, they just break into a farm, back up just the tractor cab of their truck to link it up to a trailer already packed with nuts, and then they just drive off.

But that's not always the way it goes down.

Investigators believe most, if not all, of these nut nappings are run by sophisticated crime organizations.

Now.

To be clear on that terminology, that doesn't mean the mafia is running nut jobs.

When investigators say organized crime or crime organizations, they're often speaking about any sophisticated organanization that happens to be a criminal enterprise.

Neut thefts now often rely on high tech tactics, including hacking into trucking company computer systems to get details of cargo movements, as well as to steal identities of employees.

Drivers armed with false shipping papers and a false identity, pose as legitimate truckers and drive away with tons of nuts valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars per load.

And it's not until several days later when a shipment never reaches its intended destination, when the theft is discovered.

But by then those stolen nuts might already be for sale in another state or another country, stated an official from cargo Net.

Quote.

By then it's already stolen, sold and shipped off to wherever.

Remember you won't find a serial number on a pistachio or a QR code on an almond, explained to Larry County Sheriff Mike Boudreau.

Once criminals have the nuts, it takes less than twenty four hours for them to be distributed domestically.

They may also be sold overseas, either directly to consumers or to small unknowing businesses.

And black market price for nuts is equal to fair market price, which is unlike other commodities such as electronics, where the price drops.

Eric Hoffer, vice president of the Cargo Security Alliance, which assists businesses with safety practices, stated rather bluntly of the nut thefts in the early two thousands, quote, it usually boils down to someone was stupid.

And what he means is some companies aren't or weren't as strict with security as they could have been, or they didn't even realize they were lacking insecurity.

In reality, explained Hoffer, armed hijackings of trucks are the least common form of cargo theft that only accounts for one percent of robberies.

According to freight Watch International, which tracks cargo theft incidents, armed hijacking carry steep penalties, and it's considered by experts to be the method of choice for quote desperate criminals, or at least those who are not backed by an organized scheme or crime syndicate.

When it comes to well organized nuttheists, though Hoffer explains, quote, it's very rare that it's haphazard.

There is a structure.

This is organized crime.

To Larry County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux echoed Hoffer, saying quote, we have identified an Armenian organized group.

We are calling it a syndicate.

They are making millions, maybe billions of dollars.

Rich Paloma, a reporter with the Oakdale Leader who also has a twenty six year background in law enforcement, has stated that thefts were likely part of a larger quote nut mafia.

In twenty thirteen, he told NPRS all things considered, quote from my research, I'm gathering that the person who does this is going to be well organized and have some connections.

Some of the sources I've contacted indicate there's an organized crime aspect to this.

If you look at how they're taken out, how they are planned, the equipment that is being used.

It's going to require some investment.

We're going to take a break for a word from our sponsors.

When we return, we'll talk about the farm to table chain for tree nuts and how thieves insert themselves into that.

Welcome back to Criminalia.

Let's talk fake paperwork, fake identities, and diverted shipments.

Let's look at the basics of how the tree nut processing chain works so we can better understand where thieves exploit it.

Tree nuts, as it sounds, grow on trees.

After they're harvested, the nuts are cleaned, pasteurized, and then maybe roasted or seasoned.

Each of these steps is typically completed at a different facility once they're ready to go.

Growers and buyers typically rely on brokers to connect them with trucking companies who transport the nuts.

So let's say a large chain retailer like cost Co places an order for thousands of pounds of almonds from a grower in Central California.

Cost Code doesn't have enough trucks in its own fleet to transport every shipment it needs, so it outsources the contract to a broker.

Through that broker.

Online trucking companies then bid for the transportation job, but a successful bidder doesn't necessarily mean a legitimate bidder.

Some criminals look for loads to steal on websites advertising per trip trucking jobs.

Often brokers use a message board style platform for companies to bid on jobs, and once a thief, posing as a legitimate company wins the bid to carry a shipment, they are officially in business from seller to buyer.

Criminals have inserted themselves in a few ways.

They set up fictitious companies or steal the identity of a legitimate company.

They alter paperwork, and they divert shipments so that legitimately placed orders never reach their intended destination, instead ending up in criminal hands.

Non Legitimate drivers are given forged identity documents and cargo manifests, allowing them to pick up cargo loads from the processors and growers with no questions asked.

Criminals behind the heists often use burner phones too, which they use to reroute the driver to a location where then thousands of nuts disappear and they can't be traced because they just throw away those phones.

In some cases, explained to Larry County Sheriff Boudreaux.

Quote, a legitimate truck driver will pick up a load and deliver it to a false location unknowingly.

Explain Duayne de Bruyne, a spokesperson for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

That's an agency of the Department of Transportation.

Quote.

Through the public database, you can look up a company record, you can get mailing addresses and dot numbers.

There's a lot of public information that's available in which clever individuals would misrepresent as a broker or something when they arrange some kind of transaction.

Reported by The Washington Post at the time when these large thefts were coming to light.

Quote, thieves assume the identity of a trucking company, often by reactivating a dormant Department of Transportation carrier number from a government website for as little as three hundred dollars that lets them pretend to be a long established firm with a seemingly good safety record.

The fraud often includes paperwork such as insurance policies, fake driver's licenses, and other documents.

Then the con artists offers low bids to freight brokers who handle shipping for numerous companies.

When the truckers show up at a company.

Everything seems legitimate, but once driven away, the goods are never seen again.

When it comes to security, stated Eric Hoffer of the Cargo Security Alliance.

Companies can be and are often very sophisticated about protecting their internal computer data, yet they may not pay as much attention to security at the loading dock or security shack, or areas often manned by low paid workers who received little security training.

So let's jump back to that one hundred and eighty four thousand dollars cargo load of almonds from Sunny Gem that never made it to its Oregon destination.

According to the lawsuit filed, the load was actually picked up by a different trucking company and the trailer had a different identification number than planned, but other information matched, advised Hoffer.

Unless everything is correct information about the destination the trailer, the driver workers should never release a shipment quote.

If all the stars weren't in alignment, they shouldn't give it to them.

After one theft into Larry County, a theft of nearly five hundred thousand dollars worth of pistachios, stated Scott Woodard, controller at the Horizon Nut Company, to ABC News, in twenty fifteen quote, they had all the right documents.

We had no idea really that anything was out of the ordinary at all.

So where do the stolen nuts end up?

Sometimes Canada, sometimes Mexico, sometimes elsewhere in the United States, stated to Haima County Sheriff's detective Chad Parker, president of the California Rural Crime Prevention Task Force, in twenty fifteen, quote, I've traced walnuts that were stolen in my county to LA and they were then transported to Detroit where they were being sold in bakeries and in a storefront.

Most stolen nuts are exported, though one shipment was intercepted by authorities after being loaded onto a ship in Los Angeles, for example, that was destined for Saudi Arabia.

Investigators trying to crack these cases have also traced stolen cargo to Europe or Asia, where they fetched top dollar.

In recent years, the nut industry has begun to adopt additional security and safety protocols to try to combat the forged documents, fake businesses, and computer hacking being used to divert and steal cargo shipments.

The industry is starting to fight back by finger printing and photographing drivers who arrive to pick up loads.

In fact, authorities say anyone unwilling to provide or allow that verification should not be trusted with the shipment Processors are also involved checking truck vehicle identification numbers and calling to verify information.

Some in the industry are adopting high tech solutions, including but not limited to, radio frequency identification tags to track cargo loads once they leave the lot.

When asked about who ends up buying these stolen nuts, one shipping security executive stated, quote, you do, You just don't know it.

I wonder how many stolen almonds I've eaten.

Huh, probably more than you want to know.

Yeah.

Probably.

Would you like a boosted bevy?

Yes?

I would.

This one was such an instant I knew what I wanted to do, because when I think of almonds, what do I think of Orsha?

Which is an almonds syrup that's made with orange blossom water.

It's super yummy and I love it.

And Orja is really really popular in tiaki drinks because it has like this beautiful flavor of this very round body.

It kind of evens out all of the more sugary notes that you'll sometimes have and it can soften up the edges of a high alcohol content drink.

It's a really really lovely tool to have in your arsenal.

And because it's made of almonds, it was exactly right.

It's perfect.

And that made me think.

In thinking of tiki drinks, I thought about my ties, because that's, you know, the one that everyone thinks of, And I thought, how can we change up on my tie?

So that's our boosted bevy to now.

My tie is normally made with two different kinds of rum, lime juice, an orange liqueur orja, and simple syrup.

So for ours, what we're gonna do is into your shaking tin.

Uh, you're gonna put a half ounce of simple syrup, a half ounce of orjea, a half ounce of amarettos, so we can really almond this business up your ounce of lime juice, and then an ounce and a half of gin.

And this is a really good time to take advantage of the current trend of flavored and interesting gins on the market.

It seems like every company or distiller that produces gin right now is like, here's our new floral collection, here's our new you know, desert inspired collection.

Here's which is great.

They're great, and I have always liked to flavor gin a little more than a standard gin, but this is a great time to play with those.

Any of those are great.

If you love a gin, or if you're interested in playing with one, now is the time.

So all of that will go into your shaking tin.

You're gonna shake it with ice and get it nice and cold, and then you will stream it over fresh ice into like a Collins glass.

I took a sip of this and I literally went wow, like it was so much better than I anticipated.

I mean, I don't know why I was surprised, because like lime and omaretto are not things you would always think of together.

But sometimes, I mean, if you make an omearetto sour, that's usually what's going on, but it just does something really really lovely.

And for the mocktail on this, that also gave me a little bit of a wow.

It's a different flavor.

But here's what we're gonna do for this one.

You will put a half ounce of simple syrup three quarters of an ounce of orja.

Because you're making up for the amaretto.

We're not using an ounce of lime juice, and just stir that together, get that well incorporated.

Put your you can do this right in your serving glass, put your ice in, and then top it with like two to three ounces of tonic water.

Also delicious in a different way.

It tastes different.

And this isn't a case we often sub out gin with tonic water, uh, making it flat.

You don't.

This is a bubbly one.

So they have different characteristics, the cocktail and mocktail.

But this is a very yummy, yummy sip.

I quite liked it a bunch.

And because one of the things that is in this outline for today that really jumped out at me when Maria had handed over all of her research was the stupid but obvious element that like nuts don't get identification markings and so and because their value doesn't degree I mean, mind blowing.

So we're just calling this one no barcode because there's no way to bark coded and almond.

I mean you could, but would it be a pain?

I mean that would be a job creator, I guess.

But yeah, So this is the no bar code, which was a surprisingly delicious sip for me.

This is one of those rare occasions where I drink the whole drink because I like it so much.

And it happens when I'm not even I'm pet in the cant and then the drink is gone.

I don't know what happened.

What happened?

Cat?

Did you drink my drink?

No?

She she drank it.

Listen, that one would, that one would.

She's got a mind of her own, that kid.

But anyway, a little tiny non alcoholic something.

I got to check all the ingredients and make sure that they're safe.

But yeah, so that is the no bar code.

I'm in love with this drink.

I hope you are.

If you make it, we will be back with you again.

Next week we'll have another historical crime.

This one was recent history, but I'm still gonna count it and more drinks to go with it.

Criminalia is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio.

For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.