Man charged with running international car-burglary ring out of SF boba shop, DA says
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin announced on Tuesday a major bust in an international fencing operation that was allegedly being run out of a boba shop in the Tenderloin.
Officials say Quoc Le was arrested during "Operation Bulldog" and about 1,000 stolen electronic devices were recovered from that shop. Le's wife owns Quickly Bubble Tea Cafe on Larkin Street.
I-TEAM EXCLUSIVE: Fencing operation video shows what happens after car break-ins
The district attorney's office says this discovery stemmed from its broader auto-burglary operation "Auto Pilot" which has been going on for over a year now. The operation tracks items taken from "bait cars."
"Inside the bags we left in these bait cars were high value products and also tracking devices in that allowed us to follow both electronically and in person with eyes on the ground where these stolen goods moved," Boudin said in a news conference on Tuesday.
Boudin said many of these items were shipped from the boba shop in the Tenderloin to places like Texas, Asia, and Europe.
"We developed this operation with the goal of not simply waiting for the arrests to come into the door but also dismantling the fencing operation that creates so much demand for stolen property that make car breaks in profitable in the first place," Boudin said.
The DA says this investigation is part of a larger operation to crack down on these rings. His office worked with the American Car Rental Association, Homeland Security, and the group SF Safe.
The San Francisco Police Department did assist with intel gathering.
If you think you had an item stolen in one of these rings, Boudin said his office is hoping to create a website that will allow people to browse and possible retrieve their items.
VIDEO: Car break-ins on the rise across the Bay Area; how some are 'risking it all' to avoid it
If you're on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live
