BURLINGAME – The state’s top law enforcement official announced on Friday that the latest and greatest accused in a massive plan to steal over-the-counter drugs in San Mateo County – and sell them to overseas – had been convicted, completely disrupting what authorities say is one of the largest organized retail theft rings in California history.

State Attorney General Rob Bonta made the announcement outside a CVS pharmacy in Burlingame, as the Bay Area and Southern California faced a continuing wave of gang thefts, including one involving nearly 90 people storming a Walnut Creek Nordstrom and fleeing with cargo in mid-November.

In the San Mateo County Theft Network, which was the subject of a criminal complaint between August 2019 and September 2020, five people were charged with offenses of conspiracy, organized retail theft, possession of stolen goods and aggravated white collar felony charges.

Bonta said when San Mateo County Sheriff’s Deputies and state Department of Justice agents searched a Concord warehouse as part of the investigation, they seized approximately $ 8 million in merchandise. steals – mostly pharmaceuticals and electronics – that had been taken from stores such as CVS, Target, and Walgreens. Authorities also seized more than $ 1.8 million in bank accounts linked to the scheme.

“Organized theft in retail is illegal, let’s be absolutely clear about this. This is serious and there are, as we see today, serious consequences, ”said Bonta. “The principal defendant organized what we believe to be one of the largest retail theft rings to ever break up in the history of the state.”

The main accused was Danny Louis Drago, a Concord resident who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit organized retail theft, receiving stolen property, money laundering and an aggravated felony allegation. in white collar. For Drago, his plea deal to a six-year prison sentence spares him the 58 additional money laundering charges initially brought against him.

By the time the arrests took place in September 2020, four other people linked to the theft plot have pleaded guilty to felony charges and have been convicted. Concord resident Michelle Renee Fowler has pleaded for organized retail theft, concealment of stolen goods and an aggravated white collar allegation. His three-year state prison sentence was suspended pending just under a year in prison and two years probation.

Edgar Geovany Robles Morales and Isis Vasquez Villanueva, a married couple from San Francisco, pleaded conspiracy to commit organized theft in retail and were sentenced to probation and about a year of electronic surveillance with the possibility to compensate for it through a work program. Jose Villatoro pleaded for receiving stolen goods and was sentenced to probation and 30 days in jail.

The investigation began in April 2020 and included the state DOJ, the San Mateo County Sheriff’s and District Attorney’s Offices, and the California Highway Patrol. Authorities claim the Drago and his co-conspirators moved the stolen goods from the warehouse and arranged for the material to be shipped to other countries, after which they would launder the money in the United States through an array of accounts. banking.

Sheriff Carlos Bolanos said the investigation “involved thefts occurring throughout San Mateo County” which “extended to retail thefts, commercial burglaries, residential burglaries and auto break-ins.” Besides the warehouse, he said search warrants were served on several homes and around a dozen storage units.

Bonta said the sentences resulting from the investigation should be taken as a pledge that the current wave of reported retail thefts in the region will receive the same attention from national and local law enforcement.

“Today’s announcement should serve as a wake-up call to anyone considering participating in an organized retail theft,” he said. “You will be held responsible. You will suffer the consequences.