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Over five months in 2023, state Department of Justice Special Agent Mark Wood said, he and other agents watched as 50-year-old Jurupa Valley resident Jose Raul Chica and 34-year-old Colton resident Jose Antonio Interiano Martinez steered truckload after truckload of contraband — 129 trips in all — to a business in Ontario.
Inside the box trucks, Wood said, were not illegal drugs whose seizures are celebrated by police departments or the kind of aerial, out-of-state fireworks that make fire chiefs tremble.
Instead, inside were everyday objects that, under most circumstances, are perfectly legal. Except in this case, Wood said in a sworn statement written to obtain arrest warrants, these were millions of aluminum cans and plastic bottles destined for the unaffiliated Ontario recycling processor after the recyclables were illegally smuggled in from Arizona to be redeemed for millions of dollars from the state.
Eight members of what Wood described as an organized crime ring were arrested in 2023, and on Monday, June 9, three of them are scheduled to go to trial at the Riverside County Hall of Justice in Riverside. They have pleaded not guilty. Four others already have pleaded guilty and one has a warrant out for his arrest.
“California’s recycling program is funded by consumers and helps protect our environment and our communities,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said when the charges, including grand theft, recycling fraud, conspiracy and perjury, were announced in 2023. “Those who try to undermine its integrity through criminal operations will be held accountable.”
Messages left for the defendants’ attorney, Aldo Flores, were not returned.
In California, the state attaches a fee, known as California Redemption Value, to many aluminum cans and plastic bottles containing beverages. Beverage sellers make a payment to the California Recycling Fund for each container. The cost is passed along to consumers in the form of the CRV fee they pay at checkout. That fee gives consumers an incentive to redeem the containers for money from the state rather than throwing them away.
California law prohibits importing recyclables for redemption. The fraud occurs when a recyclable is redeemed for cash without somebody having paid the CRV to the state.
In Arizona, there is no financial incentive to recycle, although the state still has centers similar to those in parking lots in California where consumers can drop off cans and bottles. It was at those centers, Wood wrote, that the defendants obtained 178 tons of recyclables that they redeemed for $7.6 million across the state line.
DOJ officials declined to say how they learned of the alleged scheme.
The document said Genaro Solis-Fuentes loaded a toy hauler trailer with the recyclables in Arizona and towed it to California over less-traveled roads on an unspecified date.
“The circuitous route added approximately 150 miles and over two hours, but avoided California Department of Food and Agriculture inspection stations,” Wood wrote.
Solis-Fuentes dumped the contraband at two lots and a self-storage facility, all in Jurupa Valley, Wood wrote.
Before taking recyclables to a processor and getting paid, operators of recycling centers must submit a shipping report to CalRecycle through a computer system and attest under penalty of perjury that the recyclables are eligible for redemption. Maria Ermelinda Saenz-Gonzalez, Francisco Balmore Amaya-Saenz, Jose Alfredo Henriquez, Manuela Rodriguez Rizo and Martinez owned recycling centers that submitted the shipping reports electronically, Wood wrote.
One of those businesses, Carinito Recycling, which had centers in Jurupa Valley, Riverside and Rancho Cucamonga, submitted 46 reports from February 2023 to May 2023 stating it had recycled 130,268 pounds of material. Carinito was paid $103,268 by the state. Another, Golden Empire Recycling, which had locations in Jurupa Valley and Riverside, submitted 17 reports in that same period stating that it had recycled 59,963 pounds of material. Golden Empire was paid $96,777.
From the lots and self-storage facility, the cans and bottles were loaded onto the trucks and delivered to the Ontario recycling processor. Such processors prepare the material for sale to aluminum mills, glass container manufacturers or others to be turned into new products. No one at the Ontario facility has been accused of any crime.
Those facing trial Monday are Saenz-Gonzalez, 43, of Jurupa Valley; Fuentes, 45, of Phoenix; and Chica.
Rizo, a Los Angeles resident who turns 60 on June 8, pleaded guilty to unlawful recycling on Sept. 16, 2024, and was sentenced to 180 days in jail and ordered to pay $103,608 restitution.
Victor Manuel Hernandez, 25, of Jurupa Valley, pleaded guilty to unlawful recycling on April 5, 2024, and was sentenced to 30 days in jail and to pay $47,330 in restitution.
Martinez pleaded guilty to unlawful recycling on June 17, 2024, and was sentenced to 180 days in jail and to pay $45,986 in restitution.
Amaya-Saenz, 26, of Jurupa Valley, pleaded guilty to unlawful recycling on Sept. 16, 2024, and was sentenced to 180 days in jail. He was not required to pay restitution.
There is a warrant for Henriquez’s arrest.
Originally Published:
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