A man who sheriff’s deputies say was at the center of Albuquerque’s largest organized retail crime operation was arrested earlier this month.
Raul Fernando Garcia, 42 — dubbed the “Al Capone” of retail theft by the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office — was arrested on April 15. He is facing multiple charges including organized retail crime, money laundering, racketeering and tampering with evidence.
After his arrest, Garcia told deputies that he used money from his ventures to fund his gambling habit and give expensive gifts to his family.
A call to Garcia’s attorney wasn’t returned by press time.
The investigation
In February, according to an affidavit, a Bernalillo County Sheriff’s deputy began investigating organized retail crime in the Northeast area of the county.
Thefts from Sephora, Ulta Beauty, Target and Lululemon reportedly exceeded $10,000 each between and 2024.
According to police, the stores all reported that a similar offender was targeting them.
Police were able to confirm that the person shoplifting from these stores was the same and they were able to positively identify him.
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In 2023, House Bill 234 was passed during the legislative session that made it so those who shoplift multiple times from the same store in 90 days can be charged with felony shoplifting when the amounts they stole are aggregated.
Previously, people were charged only based on the amount they had stolen during an individual incident.
As of mid-March, 71 cases had been filed in Bernalillo County. None involved locally-owned businesses. The total amount stolen in these cases is $113,943.
Since 2018, misdemeanor prosecutions for shoplifting have been on the decline, while felony prosecutions are increasing.
Read more about this issue here.
The deputy contacted the organized crime unit at the Albuquerque Police Department and found that they recently completed a search warrant at a storage unit in Albuquerque that Garcia rented.
On March 14, the deputy was called to a theft in progress at Sephora inside the Coronado Mall.
During the investigation, the shoplifter told the deputy they gave stolen items to Garcia and that he’d been stealing goods for him for the past four years. The suspect told the deputy that Garcia had a storage unit where he kept the stolen items.
The deputy was able to locate Garcia’s GMC Yukon in the 1900 block of Menaul Blvd. NE. He got permission to install a GPS sensor on Garcia’s vehicle and tracked the vehicle for 10 days to locations that were known for stolen merchandise trafficking.
The affidavit states Garcia was trafficking stolen merchandise by purchase, trade, or barter from “boosters” and then sold the items for a profit.
The arrest
On April 12, the deputy began to track three stolen fragrances that had GPS monitors on them to Garcia’s place of employment. He then tracked the fragrances to Garcia’s home, trips to the casino, and around the city.
On April 15, the deputy tracked Garcia to a local business and when Garcia left the business he threw a blue box from his car. The deputy collected the blue box and went inside the business to talk to a person working there.
The person told the deputy that he purchased a tool bag from Garcia. The tool bag held two Victoria’s Secret perfume sets and Milwaukee-brand tools. The employee told the deputy that he purchased the items from Garcia on Facebook.
Garcia was arrested later that day at home.
The confession
Court documents state that after Garcia was arrested, he confessed to purchasing stolen merchandise such as purses, lingerie and fragrances from local boosters who would bring him the items after they were shoplifted.