Ventura County (California) Sheriff’s Office deputies stopped a suspected vehicle earlier this week after receiving reports of stolen avocados. Inside, the sheriff’s office said they’d found hundreds of pounds of the stolen fruit.
Four people — David Melchor, 18; Jesus Pozos, 23; Valentin Pozos, 33; and Epifania Pozos, 37 — were arrested and charged with stealing the avocados from a Fillmore farm. Also included on the arrest report are suspicions of agricultural grand theft, criminal conspiracy, and trespassing.
The car’s search and subsequent arrests were based on tips and information provided through a collaboration with Farm Watch, which reported recent crime trends and agricultural thefts in the Santa Clara Valley.
Farm Watch is a county-wide electronic neighborhood watch initiative reaching hundreds of farms, ranches, nurseries, and supply houses. It informs ranchers about agriculture crime trends and guides them to preserve potential evidence at crime scenes.
The avocadoes were returned to the farm. But it’s not the first time the popular fruit has been stolen from local farms.
“Four guys, three guys in the middle of the night will pull up on the side of the road at 2 o’clock in the morning when everyone is asleep and pick a few hundred pounds and sell it on the cash market for $500, $600 bucks,” Hayden McIntyre, whose family owns Sierra Pacific Farm, told abc7.
Avocado crops bring about $250 million annually to Ventura County. However, California isn’t the only place suffering from avocado thefts.
Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office has begun investigating the theft of 40,000 tonnes of avocados in Michoacan, Mexico. During two separate robberies last month, thieves stole the avocados in highway heists.
Mexico is the largest producer of avocados globally, accounting for 45 percent of the international market, and while farmers are a common target of drug cartel’s extortion demands, hijackings of shipments are rare, according to news sources.
