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Over the past few years, stolen Nike shipments have been at the top of news from broken into cargo facilities to uncovered warehouses.
A breakthrough in the ongoing investigations has been made as the Los Angeles Police Department charged Roy Lee Harvey, a 37-year-old Tennessee man, in connection to the case. The individual, who police say operated around LA, had the help of a Nike employee to execute the elaborate theft ring.
Detectives say that the suspects exploited loopholes at the heart of Nike’s distribution system in Memphis, the base where the products are shipped nationwide. The thieves printed fake shipping labels and paid off employees at UPS and Nike in Tennessee, California, and potentially other areas to “deliberately misdirect or redirect” cartons of shoes to several locations in the Los Angeles area, according to detectives.
The Los Angeles Times‘ report states that members would “intercept” packages with swapped labels and get ahold of them within the supply chain — docks, highways, and warehouses. Packages would also be hijacked by swapping addresses with the shipping companies after they had left Nike’s warehouse.
Since June 2023, the ring has been responsible for stealing more than $2 million in Nike products, according to the search warrant that was written by LAPD Commercial Crimes Division Detective Marc Sternin.
During the investigation, mislabeled packages were linked to Harvey’s RHJ Global Kicks LA headquarters, which was registered by Harvey in 2020. After a search warrant was obtained, authorities found 1,101 calls and text messages over a roughly six-month period with a phone number associated with a Nike employee in Memphis.
Los Angeles Police Department has filed 27 felony counts of receiving stolen property against Harvey, according to the LA Times.
Some of the stolen goods from Harvey were recovered during a warehouse raid on January 27 where $5 million worth of Nike products were found at a warehouse where a resale business operates, but no one involved with that business faces any charges, and is not mentioned in the LAPD search warrant authored by Sternin.
Stay tuned to Snkrs Day as the story develops.
