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Agencies Raid Diesel Theft Ring Near Port of Oakland
Fuel Has Been Stolen From Station Pumps in Several Counties Since 2024
Key Takeaways:
- Law enforcement agencies in California disrupted an organized diesel theft ring tied to gas station thefts and black market resale.
- The investigation uncovered thefts across several counties totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen fuel.
- Similar diesel theft operations have recently been discovered on the East Coast involving large quantities of improperly stored fuel.
Federal and local law enforcement officers have taken action to bust an organized ring of diesel thieves thought to be selling the fuel around the .
An ongoing investigation with the FBI in California involves numerous law enforcement agencies looking into a criminal network stealing diesel fuel from businesses in multiple counties.
“The thieves are targeting gas stations and not those transporting the diesel fuel. Several methods are being used to steal the diesel fuel. Because this is an active investigation, I cannot disclose those methods,” Greenfield Police Sgt. Jorge Gutierrez told Transport Topics.
Recently, search warrants were executed during raids at four sites in the San Francisco Bay Area — two in Oakland within 4 miles of Port of Oakland’s main terminals, as well as in Richmond and San Leandro.
“Organized fuel theft operations often involve the illegal resale of stolen fuel and pose serious public safety risks due to unsafe handling and storage of highly flammable materials. These crimes are commonly associated with broader organized criminal activity,” a noted.
The Greenfield Police Department is leading the investigation with assistance from the FBI, the county sheriff’s office and police department in Monterey, the California Highway Patrol in Hayward, Oakland police and San Mateo County sheriff’s deputies.
“We believe they’re selling it on the black market. You know, the Port of Oakland — there’s a whole lot of trucking companies back and forth. With the fuel prices that we have, especially for diesel, it’s pretty high. So I’m sure that they’re making some money selling it on the black market,” Greenfield Police Chief Guillermo Mixer told a local KSBW TV news reporter immediately after the search warrant raids.
The case began in August when officers in Greenfield, a quiet Salinas Valley agricultural hamlet along historic El Camino Real, began investigating a report of stolen diesel.
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Subsequently, Valentin Gomez, 46, was arrested there for allegedly attempting to steal diesel fuel, Gutierrez said.
Charged with grand theft exceeding $950, Gomez pleaded not guilty in an ongoing prosecution in California’s .
Greenfield investigators discovered similar thefts in Monterey County and other police jurisdictions such as Alameda, Colusa, Marin, San Joaquin and Contra Costa counties dating to 2024.
The thefts in Monterey County amounted to $73,000 in stolen fuel from gas stations in Greenfield, Carmel and Monterey. The total value of stolen diesel is being determined, but it is thought to be in the “hundreds of thousands” of dollars, according to Gutierrez.
He noted the stolen diesel is believed to have been taken from gas station pumps and transported unsafely on the beds of flatbed trucks as “a very dangerous way to travel” that poses public safety risks for everyone on the road.
Gutierrez encouraged truckers to be watchful at gas stations and report suspicious activity to the business and local law enforcement such as finding credit card skimming devices installed at pumps. Drivers should be on the lookout for possible thieves filling multiple tanks with diesel fuel loaded into the beds of personal trucks with and without trailers. Other suspicious behavior includes people loitering near pumps who appear to be manipulating credit card readers, number pads, or trying to open the pumps.
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On Oct. 25, a suspect operating a flatbed commercial truck reportedly stole 800 gallons of fuel from a gas station in San Carlos by pumping the gas directly into fuel tanks on the flatbed, said Sgt. Philip Hallworth of the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators there assisted the Greenfield Police Department by helping search the suspect’s vehicle.
In a related development, law enforcement officials on the East Coast have cracked down on three cases of suspected diesel theft rings. One involved credit card skimmers used to purportedly buy diesel to be resold around New Jersey. An Alabama sheriff’s deputy stumbled across a suspected fuel theft operation on the East Coast after he noticed the van driver, who didn’t have a commercial driver license, allegedly “hauling large tanks containing approximately 600 gallons of diesel fuel stowed improperly” in the rear of the van.
Florida law enforcement officers last year launched a six-month investigation in Florida called “Operation Van Diesel” that resulted in the arrest of 10 suspects in a theft ring. Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said criminals stole 185,000 gallons of diesel worth $650,000 in retail losses from 350 gas station thefts in numerous counties.
