In the latest train robbery in the city of Los Angeles, dozens of firearms, including handguns and shotguns, were stolen from a cargo train in a massive raid.
As reported by ABC News, three suspects arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) last summer were found to be in possession of some of the new .22-caliber handguns from the stolen cache. The guns were found to match the larger batch of 36 handguns stolen from the train that had been bound for Tennessee, according to police.
One of the suspects admitted that the guns were stolen while the train was in the Lincoln Heights rail yard, which has become a prime target for train robberies in recent months. Later, two more suspects were arrested with shotguns that were found to have come from a larger batch of 46 shotguns that had also been stolen from the train.
The vast majority of the 82 stolen weapons remain unrecovered.
“I’ve got 24 years in LAPD, ex-military, secret clearance, and I have to wait 10 days to get a new firearm,” said LAPD Captain German Hurtado, “and these guys are going into these containers with no locks and getting guns. These guns were unguarded, unprotected … God knows how many guns have been stolen that way.”
Other recent train robberies in Los Angeles have seen the theft of nearly one hundred delivery packages from some of America’s biggest delivery companies, including Amazon, FedEx, and UPS. Railroad companies have publicly pleaded with Los Angeles authorities, including District Attorney George Gascon (D-Calif.) to crack down on crime in Los Angeles, claiming that his policies have been too soft on criminals and their sentences.