Beer Heists

Stealing and Dealing Your Beer
by: Paul R. Kan

Without knowing it, you may have been drinking a stolen beer at your last happy hour. Organized rings of beer thieves across the United States have been taking thousands of gallons of beer from trains, breweries and delivery trucks. Rather than Robin Hoods—stealing beer from the rich to give to the thirsty—these criminals sell the looted beer to bars and restaurants.

Beer heists are more than shoplifting a couple of six packs from the local liquor store.

• $675,000 worth of beer was looted from a Houston warehouse.
• Two hundred cases of beer were robbed from a warehouse and discovered in a van after a police pursuit in Fontana, California.
• 719 cases of Dos Equis beer were swiped from an Austin, Texas distributor.
• Two refrigerator trailers containing 3,300 cases of beer were stolen from an Atlanta craft brewery.

But it was a ring of beer thieves busted last spring in the Northeast United States that perpetrated the widest ranging number of beer heists. For at least two years, the “Beer Theft Enterprise” stole hundreds of thousands of dollars of Corona and Modelo across four states. Often armed with guns, the group cut through fences, broke locks and hauled out beer from railyards and warehouses under the cover of night. According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s announcement of the gang’s indictment —and without realizing the pun—the criminal group had “left several beverage distribution and railroad companies ailing.”

How does looted beer get from railyard to bar? Understanding how beer makes its way to the black market—and potentially to your glass—it’s important to first learn why beer is targeted for heists.

The Felony in the Fridge

In many ways, beer is not an ideal product for a criminal gang to steal and deal. Unlike narcotics, criminals aren’t producing their own beer and selling it directly to consumers. Nor do they partner with illegal producers seeking to move their beer on the street. Beer thieves, instead, must rob businesses to procure the product. Breaking into a business heightens the risks of being caught, arrested and imprisoned. Not only do thieves have to burgle a location where beer is kept, but to be profitable, they have to take a lot of it. This makes clandestinely transporting and storing large quantities complicated.

Complicated, but not impossible. Despite the downsides, beer is an attractive target for organized thieves. Criminal gangs know there’s a demand among bar and restaurant owners for cut-rate beer. Criminals also know that stolen beer easily blends-in with the legitimately purchased stock. Glancing in a walk-in refrigerator, the difference between legally and illegally acquired beer inventory is nearly indistinguishable. The ease of concealing stolen beer is tempting enough for some business owners to risk paying criminals for some. All of this makes beer, unlike some goods from other robberies, easier for criminals to offload. No visits to shady pawnshops required.

Getting caught stealing and dealing beer also have lower legal penalties than trafficking illegal products like hard drugs. Police and prosecutors are often more focused on crimes that directly, and more severely, harm public safety. After all, it’s not cocaine; it’s just beer.

Beerfellas

The relative ease of selling stolen beer, the lower criminal penalties and the potential of a high payoff can be seductive reasons for individuals to join a heist. In fact, the ringleader of the Beer Theft Enterprise openly recruited on Instagram for help with his robberies by promising lucrative paydays. One post read that participants “in the beer train method” would be guaranteed “100k+ in a month.” Another post included a picture of a railroad with the caption “Need workers who want to make [money bag emoji]” with a “Yes” or “No” vote button.

How many people hit the “yes” button for a heist isn’t publicly known. But the brazen recruitment on Instagram reveals how manpower is essential for a beer heist. Lookouts, drivers, and people with the ability to operate heavy machinery like forklifts are usually needed for a large-scale beer robbery. Someone willing to threaten or use violence to gain access to the targeted beer may also be included. A member of the Beer Theft Enterprise threatened railyard and warehouse employees at gunpoint for entry into railcars and warehouses.

To avoid the possibility of violence, criminal rings can include an employee where beer is stored to leave a door unlocked or an alarm unarmed. This insider may also be able to pre-position beer for accomplices to load more quickly. For example, an insider was intimately involved with the beer distribution warehouse robbery in Austin, Texas. On an agreed upon date and time, he moved cases of selected beers closer to the loading dock for easier removal by the beer thieves.

After the gang accesses the beer, it’s loaded in vehicles for transport to another location. There, the criminal gang inspects the beer for any damage. Broken bottles, burst cans or cracked kegs are worthless on the black market.

For the gang, selling the undamaged beer is the next step. In one instance, the Beer Theft Enterprise sold its looted beer to a middleman…and a middlewoman. According to a West Haven Police arrest warrant, one of the ring’s members admitted that after a heist the group unloaded “the stolen beer at a garage in the Bronx next to a bodega, where the receiver was ‘a Russian guy and a young girl.’” The pair paid the thieves in cash for the beer, which was likely destined for bars, restaurants and stores around New York City.

Over a Barrel

The beer industry is uniquely vulnerable to large-scale thefts by criminal rings. America’s three-tier liquor distribution system almost invites beer heists. Put in place after Prohibition, the system is comprised of producers who make alcohol to sell to distributors in the middle who collect alcohol tax when selling to retailers. The first and second tiers create the black market for criminals—by taking beer, criminals remove the costs of tax for retailers while pocketing the money for themselves.

The result is millions of dollars in lost revenue for brewers, distributors and communities. Because of their economic damage, these crimes deserve to be a higher priority for law enforcement. But it’s unknown how often beer heists occur. Neither the U.S. Department of Justice nor beer industry groups keep statistics on large-scale beer thefts. Beyond media reporting, there is little information about these crimes. This dearth of information is part of the
problem. Without knowing the scope and scale of this type of criminal activity, prioritization won’t happen, and effective solutions will be wanting.

Without a more comprehensive examination of beer heists along with serious efforts to combat them, your happy hour beer will always be a little suspicious….

Paul R. Kan

Paul R. Kan is the author of Hawai’i Beer:  A History of Brewing in Paradise which was a North American Guild of Beer Writers’ award winner and a #1 new release on Amazon’s Books on Beer.  He has written for Good Beer Hunting and is Editor-at-Large at The Beer Thrillers.  Along with beer reviews, book reviews and interviews, he also writes about the interesting ways beer intersects with people and society.  His current book project is Red, White and Brew:  The Beers and Battles that Shaped America. He lives in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

ʻOi kau ka lā, e hana i ola honua (While the sun yet shines, do all you can).

Paul R. Kan Articles

The following are articles that Paul R. Kan has written here for The Beer Thrillers:

• Book Review: Beer and Society: How We Make Beer and Beer Makes Us (Eli Revelle Yano Wilson and Asa B. Stone)
• Book Review: A Woman’s Place is in the Brewhouse – A Forgotten History of Alewives, Brewsters, Witches, and CEOs (Tara Nurin)
• From Central PA to the Pacific: A Beer Lover’s Hawaiian Journey An Interview with Alexander B. Gates
• Book Review: The Greatest Beer Run Ever (John Chick Donohue and J.T. Molloy)
• Twofer Brewfer Brewery Reviews: Gearhouse Brewing Co. and Liquid Art Brewing
• Tapping into Heritage and Hope on Maui
• Book Review: Brewed in Japan (Jeffrey Alexander)
• Three Questions and a Pint: with Josh Dourte
• Three Questions and a Pint: with Noah Reighard
• Visiting Four Breweries in Phoenix: Getting to Visit Tombstone Brewing Company, Wren House Brewing, PHX Beer Co, and OHSO Brewery and Distillery
• Book Review: Revenge of She-Punks (Vivien Goldman)
• Beer Heists: Stealing and Dealing Your Beer

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