September 25, 2024
Thom Carroll/for PhillyVoice
Three men are charged with stealing about $7,000 worth of beef from a cargo trailer they allegedly broke into in the Tacony neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia on Tuesday morning.
Three men were arrested Tuesday morning as they were unloading 1,600 pounds of beef from a trailer they had broken into in Northeast Philadelphia, authorities said.
Philadelphia police and agents from the Pennsylvania attorney general's office took the three masked men into custody on the 7300 block of Edmund Street in Tacony, where they allegedly were caught carrying 25 boxes of beef from the rig to their van. The beef was worth about $7,000, investigators said.
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The defendants were later identified as Douglas Mathis, Jamir Scott, and Tariq Duncan, all of Philadelphia.
The incident follows a pattern of cargo thefts that have targeted frozen food stored in trailers. The arrests are part of a regional investigation called "Operation Beef Bandit," which is being carried out in partnership with New Jersey State Police.
Earlier this month, four Philly men were arrested during another cargo break-in on the New Jersey Turnpike. The defendants had been linked to numerous food thefts from trucks in the region over the past three years. Millions of dollars worth of stolen goods have been tied to the alleged ring of thieves.
In August, thieves swiped about 350-400 pounds of tuna from a refrigerated trailer truck at Samuels Seafood Co., authorities said. And earlier this month, six men in masks stole another three pallets of seafood from Seventh Street and Packer Avenue. Police also reported cargo thefts of snow crab, beef, salmon and bourbon in the city this year.
Mathis, Scott and Duncan are charged with corrupt organizations, theft and related offenses. They were arraigned Tuesday and bail for each was set at $200,000.
