Philadelphia officials have a zero tolerance policy for beef thefts.
Three men were arrested for stealing 1,600 pounds of beef from a stolen truck. The suspects are being held in jail on $200,000 cash bond each.
The arrests were announced Wednesday.
Douglas Mathis, 36, Tariq Duncan, 31, and Jamir Scott, 25, were spotted on Sept. 24 carrying 25 cases of beef from a truck parked along the 7300 block of Edmund Street, according to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office.
The arrests were part of the “Operation Beef Bandit” investigation into beef thefts in northeast Philadelphia.
The suspects were allegedly seen “breaking a lock on the tractor-trailer” and then taking the meat — valued at $7,000 — into their van, prosecutors said.
The meat was headed to restaurants and grocery stores in the Philadelphia area.
Philadelphia officials said the same crew was responsible for a series of burglaries at service areas along the New Jersey Turnpike.
“This was tenacious investigative work that involved collaboration between law enforcement agencies to stop high-value thefts from parked tractor trailers,” Attorney General Michelle Henry said in a statement. “I commend the timely work of our Organized Crime Section who tracked this crew and, essentially, caught them in the act.”
Philadelphia police take beef thefts seriously because the price of groceries is skyrocketing in today’s economy.
The excessive cash bonds sends a message to other crews that stealing beef will not be tolerated.
Business owners are relieved that the thieves were caught after losing tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise over 2 months.
Earlier this month, New Jersey troopers arrested four men accused of being part of a criminal organization targeting trucks carrying high-value goods such as meat, alcohol, and seafood across the tri-state area.
Civil rights leaders argued that the cash bails were excessive and that beef thefts are given more weight than homicides in Philadelphia.
They note that murder suspects are sometimes given no cash bonds and released from jail.
