Two more people in what prosecutors say was an eight-member recycling-fraud ring in Riverside County pleaded guilty to felony charges on Monday, June 9, just as they were set to go to trial.
Four others had already pleaded guilty to unlawful recycling and sentenced to jail for 30 to 180 days and in some cases were ordered to pay tens of thousands of dollars in restitution.
Two others are fugitives.
The state Department of Justice said the defendants obtained 178 tons of aluminum cans and plastic water bottles in Arizona that they redeemed for $7.6 million across the state line without anyone having first paid the California Redemption Value fee.
If a CRV was never paid for the can or bottle by a customer, the can or bottle can not be redeemed. Arizona does not provide a financial incentive to recycle.
Monday at the Hall of Justice in Riverside, Jose Raul Chica, 50, of Jurupa Valley pleaded guilty to grand theft and recycling fraud. Superior Court Judge Joshlyn R. Pulliam said she plans to sentence him to 364 days in jail, two years of probation and a four-year suspended state prison sentence. Under state law, the jail term will be halved.
Maria Ermelinda Saenz-Gonzalez, 43, of Jurupa Valley pleaded guilty to recycling fraud and perjury; the perjury charge stemmed from her attesting on shipping documents that the recyclables were eligible for redemption. She will receive the same sentence as Chica.
Chica and Saenz-Gonzalez answered “yes” and “guilty” in Spanish in response to Pulliam’s questions.
Pulliam set formal sentencing, as well as a restitution hearing, for July 28.
According to a sworn statement written by a DOJ investigator to obtain arrest warrants, Genaro Solis-Fuentes, 45, of Phoenix, loaded a toy hauler trailer with millions of recyclables in Arizona and towed it to California.
Saenz-Gonzalez, Francisco Balmore Amaya-Saenz, Jose Alfredo Henriquez, Manuela Rodriguez Rizo and Jose Antonio Interiano Martinez owned recycling centers in Jurupa Valley, Riverside and Rancho Cucamonga that authorized them to submit large quantities of recyclables through a recycling processor, in this case, a business in Ontario.
They filed paperwork with the state agency CalRecycle that said the recyclables met eligibility requirements.
Victor Manuel Hernandez, Rizo, Amaya-Saenz and Martinez entered guilty pleas in 2024. Arrest warrants have been issued for Solis-Fuentes and Henriquez, Deputy Attorney General Ryan Toomey said.
Toomey declined to say how investigators learned of the scheme.
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