The Sinaloan Train Robbers Causing Havoc in the Mojave Desert

Summary

The Underworld Podcast

Episode: The Sinaloan Train Robbers Causing Havoc in the Mojave Desert

Date: May 6, 2025
Hosts: Sean Williams & Danny Gold

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Episode Overview

This episode delves into the recent surge in high-value train robberies across the American West, perpetrated by a Sinaloan gang targeting freight trains hauling lucrative cargo like Nike sneakers and gaming headsets. Journalists Sean Williams and Danny Gold trace these modern heists, draw connections to the golden age of train robbery, and contrast the daring modern criminal tactics to those of infamous historical outlaws.

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Main Theme

Exploring a genuine crime wave: ruthless, highly coordinated heists of slow-moving freight trains in the Mojave Desert (and beyond), led by a gang with Sinaloa cartel ties. The episode blends gripping details of recent cases, historical context of train robberies, and lively banter to illuminate how—with all our technological advancement—crime adapts to exploit “progress.”

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Modern Mojave Train Robberies

• [00:57] Sean Williams opens with a cinematic retelling of a January 2025 heist in Williams, AZ:

  • A Sinaloan gang disables a moving freight train by cutting the air brake hose, forces it to halt, and unloads boxes of unreleased Nike sneakers worth nearly $500,000.
  • The crew is caught thanks to police using trackers hidden in the merchandise, but not before they'd hit at least ten similar trains and made off with goods valued over $2 million.
  • Authorities recover not just sneakers but also “900 boxes of Turtle Beach Stealth Pro gaming headsets worth a combined $600,000,” previously stolen.

• Scope and Scale:

  • These are not small-time jobs: “Each one of the bigger ones seems to net roughly around 400, 500k a go.” – Sean Williams [08:22]
  • Such thefts have surged: “Last year, according to the Association of American Railroads, there were over 65,000 train thefts—a 40% hike on 2023—that cost the industry around $100 million.” [08:54]
  • Arrest rates are low: “Only around 1 in 10 of these cases results in an arrest.”

• Police Response:

  • “Since then, they've placed trackers in sneaker boxes throughout the car ... and they're quickly caught. Officers arrest 11 people in total, nine of them Mexican citizens from the state of Sinaloa with criminal connections in California, New Mexico, and Arizona.” [01:44]
  • Despite major busts, “these heists haven’t stopped. They haven't even slowed.” [02:36]

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2. The Long History of Train Robbery

• First Great Train Robbery:

  • Sean uses British wit to introduce Richard Trevithick (real inventor of the train) and recounts the “Great Gold Robbery” of 1855:
    • Thieves swapped 102 kilos of gold for lead inside impenetrable safes on a London–Paris train and made off without raising suspicion (the gold equivalent to $8 million today).
    • The inside-man scheme involved masterful safecracking and elaborate planning, ending in betrayal and a sensational trial.
  • “It was absolutely astonishing to discover that the criminal class had found a way to prey upon progress and indeed to carry out a crime aboard the very hallmark of progress, the railroad.” – Quoting Michael Crichton [26:17]

• Famous American Cases:

  • Jesse James and Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch amp up frontier legends from the late 1800s.
  • The Newton Boys’ 1924 heist nets them about $2 million from a mail train, involving a corrupt postal inspector and mistaken stops that lead to arrests.
  • An Indian freedom-fighter group’s 1925 “train heist” compels colonial British reprisals.

• Recurring Crime Themes:

  • Historic and modern robberies thrive with an inside man and disgruntled staff.
  • Increased security leads to more audacious criminal innovation.

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3. How the Sinaloan Heists Work

• Tactics:

  • Gangs disable trains by cutting critical hardware, then use inside info to hit high-value shipments (often unreleased Nikes).
  • “They form a human chain, unloading not gold nor diamonds or government bonds, but box after box after box of brand new Nike sneakers into a couple of trucks or follow vehicles, as the cops call them.” [01:16]
  • Sometimes sabotage is more extreme: “Robbers have also sabotaged railway signal systems by busting the locks of signal boxes and cutting the control wires inside.” [42:53]
  • Trains stop in remote sidings for hours, giving robbers a window to strike undetected, and the train crews rarely know until it's too late.

• The Ringleader:

  • Police suspect Felipe Arturo Avalos Mejia (“Pollo”) as the ringleader, with a decade-long run in these crimes:
    • “When California and Homeland security forces raided 11 homes and 16 storage units linked to Pollo, they recover over $3 million of merch stolen exclusively from BNSF trains ... and arrest him in a restaurant, where he dines with a man carrying a Louis Vuitton bag of $120,000 cash and detailed burglary ledgers.” [39:57]
  • Even after his arrest, the raids haven’t stopped.

• Transnational Ties:

  • At least seven robberies are tied by Sinaloan residents through “Pollo” and, authorities believe, to larger cartel operations.
  • There is an overt plea from the rail industry for greater federal intervention:
    “The industry cannot disrupt these highly organized and often transnational criminal groups alone.” [44:08]

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4. Insights & Social Commentary

• The Persistence of Banditry:

  • Despite massive technological and social progress, criminals adapt as fast as commerce does.
  • “Not a lot when you think about it has changed since the 1800s.” – Sean Williams [46:44]
  • Parallels are drawn to digital crime and even virtual worlds.

• The Allure of the Outlaw:

  • Both hosts muse on the romance of “Wild West” exploits, criminal branding, and the timelessness of “land pirates.”
  • Danny: “Land pirates. Is that a thing? Do people call them land pirates?” [31:06]

• Lively Banter & British/American Humor:

  • Sean on American vs. British terminology:
    “They are trainers. You literally train in them. Who actually sneaks in sneakers? Apart from the cat burglar in the Simpsons?” [08:10]
  • Both joke about fashion choices, video games, and even being future “radio stations” in GTA 6 [29:44].

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the scope of modern heists:
  “We're talking like six, seven figures per heist.” – Sean Williams [08:16]

• On the evolution of criminality:
  “It was absolutely astonishing to discover that the criminal class had found a way to prey upon progress ... aboard the very hallmark of progress, the railroad.” – Quoting Michael Crichton [26:17]

• On the inside job:
  “Inside job ... By the end of 1856, they figure it out. It is.” – Sean Williams on the 1855 Great Gold Robbery [12:58]

• On criminal innovation:
  “Sometimes, just sometimes, crime doesn't pay.” – Sean Williams on the Newton Boys' downfall [34:00]

• On the similarities between eras:
  “Not a lot when you think about it has changed since the 1800s.” – Sean Williams [46:44]

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Timeline and Segment Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment | |---------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:57–02:36 | Modern Sinaloan train heist in Williams, AZ — detailed retelling | | 08:10 | US vs. UK sneaker/trainer terminology; setting up the big crime wave | | 08:54 | Train thefts stats: “40% hike, costing industry $100m” | | 10:03–15:49 | British train robbery history; 1855 Great Gold Robbery | | 18:32–27:46 | Details of the 1855 heist: inside men, clever safecracking, aftermath | | 28:11–34:00 | American train robbers: Reno brothers, Jesse James, Butch Cassidy, Newton Boys | | 36:00 | 1925 Indian anti-colonial train raid | | 38:26–39:55 | Return to the current Mojave heists, “Pollo” as ringleader | | 42:19 | Media and police overvalue stolen goods? Discussion on the numbers | | 42:53 | Train signal sabotage—new, dangerous escalation | | 44:08 | Rail industry spokesperson’s call for help | | 45:37–46:44 | Recent chases; wild west parallels; closing reflections |

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Conclusion

Sean and Danny wrap up with the message that, tech and time be damned, the ingenuity of criminal enterprise remains a constant—and as profit and opportunity scale up, so does the audacity of those operating in the world’s hidden underbelly. They leave listeners with wry observations about the Wild West never really ending, and a reminder to search for more Az train heist stories if you want a taste of “the real America.”

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For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

This summary captures both the gripping reality of America’s latest cargo heist wave and the rich context provided by history, complete with snark, stats, and memorable characters—from Victorian safecrackers to present-day “Pollo.” If you like globe-trotting criminal intrigue and reflective, irreverent journalism, this episode of The Underworld Podcast serves up both—with a stylish train-robber’s mask.

Transcript

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Specialoffer January 13, 2025 on a railroad cutting through the city of Williams, Arizona. Trapper country. The real Wild West. A big old freight train is rumbling down the BNSF line heading out towards the Mojave Desert on a 2000 mile journey towards Chicago. And I mean big. Most of these monsters are a minimum hundred cars long. Some measure 2.5 miles. Trains like this are a godsend for companies looking to get merch from A to B. And for the willing and able criminal, a colossal slow moving duck. There's barely any crew and those who are staffing the train are told clearly don't mess with trouble. On this particular day, bone dry and cold in a cottontail's toes, trouble is just around the bend. A team of bandits from south of the border is parked beside the railroad, ready to pick their moment. They drive up slow beside the train and one of them hops aboard the mechanical beast inching up towards its engine. When he reaches the right spot, he stops, pulls out a tool and bends down. Moments later, the train's air brake hose cut. Its driver has no choice but to lurch into an emergency stop. The slow moving duck is now a sitting one. Then the gang goes shopping. They already know which car to hit. They've got a guy on the inside. One of the team busts open its locks. And then they form a human chain, unloading not gold nor diamonds or government bonds, but box after box after box of brand new Nike sneakers into a couple of trucks or follow vehicles, as the cops call them. One is a U Haul, the other is a full pickup with the name Eddie's written down the side. By the time the gang has finished, the vehicles are carrying 1985 pairs of the shoes, worth almost half a million dollars. This is the 10th time the team has pulled off a heist like this, and they've made off with over $2 million in goods. All Nikes, plenty, not even on the market yet. Like the 41 grand's worth of Air Jordan 11 Retro Legend Blues they stole not far from Williams in Mojave county on Nov. 20 last year. Or the raid a couple weeks after that that bagged them almost 50 grand's worth with Nike Dunk Low Midnight Navy sneakers. Both of these sneaker names so sound great and totally cool in a British accent, by the way. But the January 13th heist is different. County and state cops are onto the gang. They've already impounded hundreds of pairs of sneakers, and they've even arrested the guy they think is the ringleader. Since then, they've placed trackers in sneaker boxes throughout the car, and when the trucks speed away from the railroad, the call goes out. Within moments, a swarm of squad cars is bearing down on the gang, and they're quickly caught. Officers arrest 11 people in total, nine of the Mexican citizens from the state of Sinaloa with criminal connections in California, New Mexico and Arizona. They later recover 900 boxes of turtle Beach Stealth Pro gaming headsets worth a combined $600,000, which had been ripped from a BNSF train east of Flagstaff, Arizona, back in 2023, loaded onto a landscaping vehicle and then driven to a Motel 6. The gang's cases are still going through the courts today, but they're part of a rash of railroad heists hitting the American west as transnational crime has figured out that there's wild profit to be made on the tracks. And despite the arrests and the seizures and the tracking devices, these heists haven't stopped. They haven't even slowed. It's gone on forever as long as I've been employed in the industry, one engineer says. But it's happening more often now. Yes, guys, this is the great Mojave Desert, Sinaloa, U Haul, Air Jordan's gaming headset train robbery. And honestly, it isn't that much different from all the train based banditry staple of the American dream that came way back before Nike sneakers, gaming headsets, or even trucks. Welcome to the Underworld Podcast. Hello and welcome everybody to the organized crime podcast that tells it how it is, because you just can't say anything these days. My name is Sean Williams, a Reporter and writer based out of Wellington, New Zealand. His entire personality is playing football and wearing tight jeans, even though I'm almost 40 years old. And I am joined today by documentarian Danny Gold in New York City, who has great sunglasses and even better facial hair, which you can tell because he's doing this show on video now, which is great.

[D]

That's right. You can watch it on Spotify. And I just want everyone to know that we're recording this right after we recorded the previous episode. You know, we took like a five minute break. Sean did a wardrobe change. That's how. That's how I'm wearing the same shirt. But Sean, Sean literally changed outfits for the new episode. So we should all give him credit. We should give him credit for that. You look. I mean. Yeah, yeah. Do you lay out your outfits before the episode? Like for. Are they. Theme based according to the episode topic?

[C]

No, I mean, like, I don't think people know this, but my team back home is Charlton Athletic, who are in the third division in the UK or in England rather than. And they're doing really well for once in my life. So I thought I'd rep a 1950s retro Charlton athletic shirt for this show. So, yeah, that's my team. And if any Americans DM me saying, who's your Premier League team? I will block you. Anyway, just a couple of things before we dive in today's very relevant topic, by which I mean including a reference to a 1925 rail heist in British colonial India. If for some reason you come out the other side of these videos wanting more of us, or if you just want to help me get a studio. It doesn't look like I should be holding up the day's newspaper. We've got loads of bonus content going up on the Patreon. Interviews with crooks, comment journalists, I mean, star academics, about everything from the Yakuza to coke slinging cricket stars.

[D]

That's www.patreon.com world podcast to sign up. Or you can do it right on Spotify. It'll come right to your Spotify or itunes. Ad free.

[C]

Amazing. Merch is available too, of course. Danny, do you want to. Do you want to stand up and give people.

[D]

Yeah, dude, look at this T shirt.

[C]

Proper poser.

[D]

Does it resemble a logo of a different company? It might, but that has nothing to do with us. Underworldpod.com click on merch. You can get it there.

[C]

Yeah, I was going to say it makes you look cool, but I mean, you can see that makes you look cool. And about what 30, 35% more attractive to, to the, to the, to the gender that you're. You're after. Anyway, all I want, by the way, is, you know, one of those boiler room DJs to be wearing one of our caps. I mean, is that, is that too much to ask? Surely we can get on one of those videos. They probably do more numbers than we do anyway. Yes. Train robberies. There's a good segue. The Mojave Desert unreleased Nike sneakers, which, by the way, you know, you welcome America. I'm bending over backwards by calling them that. They are trainers. You literally train in them. Who actually sneaks in sneakers? Apart from the cat burglar in the Simpsons?

[D]

Please don't do this.

[C]

No, I shall. It's my right. It's a pretty crazy story, all of this. Anyway. And as the cold open suggests, part of a genuinely like, it's genuinely big crime wave hitting the I40 corridor from California through San Bernardino county into Arizona en route to the Grand Canyon. I mean, I did that trek a few years back when an old friend got pretty fair and loathe in the good old days. And we're not talking chump change here, as you just heard. We're talking like six, seven figures per heist. Each one of the bigger ones seems to net roughly around 400, 500k ago. And it's pretty daredevil stuff, right? Given that these trains, these gigantic monsters rolling down the tracks, they're doing up to 70 miles an hour when the bandits hop on board. Sometimes they're not, and we'll get into that later on. But last year, according to the association of American Railroads, there were over 65,000 train thefts, which is a 40% hike on 2023. And that cost the industry around 100 million bucks. So, yeah, this is a pretty big deal. Only around 1 in 10 of these cases results in an arrest. And as the intro shows, you can get a whole lot of product off in a space and time. Plus, we're going to dig into the history and the tale of that ringleader and his connection to tribal cops in Arizona and Sinaloa, and really interesting stuff I don't think you're going to hear about in many other places. But it also gives us a chance to dive into the history of train heists and some of the most infamous in history, which I'll do now before rolling up to the present day. Are you with me, Danny?

[D]

Yeah. I actually think this is very cool. Like I have a wild west crime episode I want to do eventually, but this this rules. I'm with you.

[C]

Yeah, this does rule. It's good, it's cool, People love it. Okay, let's go. Unsurprisingly, there have been train robbers almost as long as there have been trains. And for your pub quiz, follow this week, shout out to the inventor of the train, Richard Trevor Thick, whose grave in Dartford I used to play football with by my mates after school. Some people think the train was invented by George Stephenson. They're wrong, guys. They're really wrong. It was the Dartford guy. Anyway, less than half a century after Trevor F's invention, railroads are crisscrossing all over Industrial Revolution Britain most of all, of course, in the capital city of London, which I think. I think the first underground system was in 1863. So it's a little after we're going to go into here. Anyway. It's the most populous city on earth at the time, around two and a half million people. And for once, Brits are less keen on blowing Frenchmen up than they are doing trade with them. And so there is a roaring business in transporting all kinds of currency and luxury goods between London and Paris. Which brings us to the first great train robbery in human history. Actually, folks call it the Great Gold Robbery because, of course, these guys stole a whole lot of gold. But year zero for train robberies is 1855. In fact, it's the evening of May 15, 1855, aboard the 8:30pm Southeastern Railway train from London Bridge to Folkestone, which is a town on the coast, one of three scheduled on the route each day, and which, incredibly, still exists today. And probably, guys, probably runs just as slowly. Anyway, on this particular evening in 1855, the train is carrying gold to the value of £12,000 in coins and bars, which is about £1.1 million today. I know you can get inflation rates on the bank of England going all the way back to 1209, which is. Which is pretty awesome. So a quid back then gets you a 1734 today, 1209. But I guess you had to muck out a ton of latrines or play some sick tunes on the loop for that kind of bag. All this gold. Yeah, and now I can actually see your reaction. So it's even worse. This gold weighs a whopping 102 kilos, which actually, for that amount of gold today, you're looking at over US$8 million, which is plenty, especially to any Dickensian thieves on the prowl. But 102 kilos of shining gold bars wouldn't be the Easiest swag, right? Unless you've got a solid gold plan to match. And luckily for one group of train robbers, well, yeah, they do. Here's some detail on the gold, courtesy of historic uk. Quote. The gold was carried in wooden boxes that were tightly bound with iron bands and sealed with wax. The seals were those of the bullion dealers, Abel and Company. Messes. I never know how to say that. Messes, Missouri. I don't know. Missours. Oh, yeah, Missouri. Because they're French and British, aren't they? Yeah, Bolton Company And Adam Spillman and Company. I don't know. The cases were picked up and transferred to London Bridge by Chaplin and Company. Probably no relation, I don't know. The carriers had weighed and sealed the boxes themselves once they had arrived at the station. The boxes were locked inside dedicated iron traveling safes made by the famous Chubb and Son Chubb Locks. Who knew? These were solid affairs, constructed from steel 1 inch thick. Each safe had two sets of locks, both identical pairs. Only certain approved railway staff and the captain of the night steamer had access to the keys. No one individual had access to both keys. And the safes were under the care of the guard of the Folkestone Night Service and the captain of the Boulogne ferry for the duration of the journey. That's your. I think it's the scene where Simon Pegg tells Tom Cruise how he's going to get into like a bank vault or something. That's. That's that bit we just did that. So. Sounds like the setup to a magic trick, right? This heist and. Well, it kind of is a group called the Messagerie Imperial, like the DHL of the time. It picks up the boxes in Boulogne and puts them on a train from there to Gare du Nord in Paris. Great Indian food there. Probably not in 1855 though. But when they arrive in Paris, when they're supposed to be placed on a carriage and sent to the vaults of the Banque du France, the bank of France, because I just said banque. There's a problem. The weights don't add up. When the messengers open up the sealed boxes, there's no gold, but there is a hell of a lot of lead shot. Q Teams of suited Frenchmen smoking galois and screaming Sacre Bleu writes historic Ukraine quote. It was a trick worthy of a stage magician or perhaps the world's least successful alchemist, that of turning gold into lead. Nice, nice little turn of phrase. The French blame the Brits, of course, and the Brits blame the French. 18 months pass. Just a. Just a blip in the long, proud history of hate between the two nations. The whole time, authorities are thinking this has to be an inside job. And by the end of 1856, they figure it out. It is. By the way, a lot of what I'm referencing here is from a book called the Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton. Yes. The guy who wrote Jurassic park and Dr. Also wrote a historical novel about a Victorian heist. And it was made into a 1978 movie with Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland. And it's actually decent. And how's this for a tagline? Never have so few taken so much from so many. Which is incorrect, but great.

[D]

Yeah. You know, I was going to reference that book. I didn't realize it was about that one. But yeah, he. Crichton wrote like, so many good books and stories and movies. Sphere, dude, Congo. You ever see Congo? Congo's a wild Andromeda strain. Yeah, Crichton was huge, dude. He also. I learned from just looking that up right now. Married five times and he's six foot nine.

[C]

I was gonna say, what a legend. Yeah. What a bowler. Yeah.

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[C]

Yeah, and all of this, this great train, Robbie, it starts out with a morality tale. And in keeping with some of the stuff we've been speaking about on other shows, it is about gambling. The best you see there is an employee of the South Eastern Railway named William Pierce. And he's a bit of a cad, hellraiser. He likes wearing loud suits and drinking and he's always getting himself into gambling debts. No Mo Dovin's back in London then. But a hell of a lot of gambling dens. In fact, brief side note, because this is super interesting, betting is getting so out of hand and going hand in hand with public drunkenness that in 1853, Britain's Attorney General draws up a law banning so called betting houses, quote. And in doing so, he considered it was not necessary for him to make any length and statement on the subject, as the evils which had arisen from the introduction of these establishments were perfect, notorious and acknowledged upon all hands.

[D]

Yeah, all that and they probably barely even had parlays back then.

[C]

I don't know what they were betting on, like frog marches or something. But anyway, that is from an 1898 book called the history of Gambling in England. By the. Anyway, it's brilliant and if you didn't know, it's from 1898, it always complains about English men being corrupted by Talmudists and Mohammedans. So, yeah, very little has changed in the British media since. Anyway, this 1853 law, of course, just pushed the gambling industry underground, attracting a constellation of crooks and criminals. And so when William Pierce is fired from Southeastern Rail for boozing and betting just a little too hard. He's been out on the town with plenty of fellas who can help him rip off his former boss. Pierce hooks up with an underworld safecracker named Edward Agar. And one of Agar's skills is that he's a master screwsman. No, not that he can forge skeleton keys. Pierce, though, he's got the boot, he's on the outside. So to get access to the boxes he knows are going to be on that London to Folkestone train, he finds a guard who's recently had his pay cut by the company and wants in. Pierce also tracks down a clerk at London Bridge named William Tester who can provide info about where and when the gold is being moved, plus when their inside man guard is going to be on shift between London and Folkestone. And finally the group brings in Fanny Kay, a former railway employee and Agar's girlfriend. No team of Victorian Cockney train robbers is complete without a bit of Fanny. A few days before the heist, Tester, the clerk or Clark, I think I'm supposed to say Clark, you've really corrupted me. Man sees there's some repair work being done on the safe's transporting the gold, so he seizes his chance and nicks the two keys before taking imprints on some wax. Only he's not a gangster and he accidentally copies one of the keys twice, so Pierce has to get a second imprint. Later on, Agar actually does something really ingenious and and hires the railway to transport a small amount of gold of his own to France. And he follows it along the route so he gets a sense of what's being done and when. Then Agar and Pierce stock up on lead shot, throw them into bags and on the night when their guard is on duty, board the train, Pearse sits in a seat like a regular punter. Agar hides himself. Then the train departs. Agar sneaks out of his hiding place and heads to the two safes, using the duplicated keys to open them. And then he painstakingly lifts off the safe's iron bands, picking each rivet so as barely to make a scratch. And then slowly he replaces the lead shot in his bags with the gold. This is all before the train had reached Redhill, a town on the outskirts of London. And when it stops, Agar hands the gold to Tester, who's conjured up an alibi for himself for work and tested, and hops on a train going the other way back to his office at London Bridge. Agar, still on the train then returns to the safes and begins the arduous process of refixing the iron band, rivet by rivet. And then he replaces the seals of the bullion dealers with ones he's made at home. I mean, they're pretty rudimentary, but they're easily good enough to pass an eye test. In dim light, Agar and Pearce then empty another couple boxes containing gold bars and American gold eagle coins, which I think still exist today, using the same precise techniques, only they run out of lead shot and fearing somebody will figure out the weight difference before getting on the ferry, leave a bunch of gold behind. And then, just like that, the pair steps off the train at Dover, not far from Folkestone, presumably looking a bit bulkier than the average commuter. Nobody is any the wiser. And after an overnight in Folkestone, the boxers continue on their merry way to Paris. And that should have been that. Over a million pounds worth of loot, spirited away without a voice raised in anger or suspicion, melted down, sold on the black market. So William Pierce could carry on betting on horses or ferret racing or whatever Victorian Londoners did for fun. Only in the summer of 1856, things begin to unravel. First, Edward Agar is arrested and convicted of forgery for his role in a separate crime, and he's sentenced to life in an Australian penal colony. He gives pierce around £7,000, a massive sum to pass on to Fanny K, who is now the mother of his child. But honour between thieves is like hen's teeth, and Pierce takes the money and runs, which is. I mean, even looking back at it now, that is obviously a massive mistake. You got to pay for Fanny, guys. And when Fanny's left high and dry, she goes to the authorities and snitches on the entire Great Gold robbery gang. In November 1856, William Pierce, William Tester and James Burgess, the guard, are all arrested. And in January the following year, they're in the dock at the Old Bailey at one of the highest profile trials of the era. The genius of the gang is mentioned throughout the process and at one point the judge even gives Edward Agar, the master safecracker, a verbal pat on the back. Quote. It is obvious that he is a man of extraordinary talent that he gave to this and perhaps to many other robberies. An amount of care and perseverance, one tenth of which devoted to honest pursuits, must have raised him to a respectable station in life. And considering the commercial activity of this country during the last 20 years would probably enabled him to realise a large Fortune. So, yeah, I mean, that's like a fancy British way of saying he would have done better if you were in business. Anyway, Fanny, of course, testifies against the gang in court. As to locksmiths, train staff and dozens others. Pierce Cotswold has seen is an extraordinary chunk of good fortune. Because he's not an employee of the railroad, the judges sentence him to two years hard labor, whereas Burgess, the guard and Tester, the clerk, they get 14 years in a penal colony. And one tiny thing before we move on, and I just figured this out way after I chose this as the topic. The ship they sent out on, the Edwin Fox is now moored in the town of Picton, New Zealand, which is the first town you get to crossing the Cook straight from Wellington to the south island, which I visited last year. And I was bored in Picton because there's nothing to do, so I visited that boat. And I have been on the same boat these guys were on. A crazy old world, isn't it, Danny?

[D]

Just wild, wild times we live in. Man.

[C]

Man, my life is just a never ending stream of excitement. Michael Crichton actually writes really well. I mean, I guess he writes really well generally, but he writes really well specifically about why this crime was so outrageous to British people at the time. And why it was called a great robbery in like all caps, right from the off. The country was going through this insane period of industrialization, urbanization, smog and sludge in the rivers, people flocking to the cities and outbreaks of cholera and the light. I mean, yeah, you've read Dickens, you know what it's like. No other country had seen anything like it in human history. But this was also an era of empire, a sense of Britain being the most important place on earth, which of course, it still is today. So writes Crichton. Quote, quote. It was absolutely astonishing to discover that the criminal class had found a way to prey upon progress and indeed to carry out a crime aboard the very hallmark of progress, the railroad. The fact that the robbers also overcame the finest safes of the day only increased the consternation. What was so really shocking about the train robbery was that it suggested to the sober thinker that the elimination of crime is might not be an inevitable consequence of. Forward march. In progress, Crime could no longer be likened to the plague which had disappeared with changing social conditions to become a dimly remembered threat of the past. Crime was something else. And criminal behavior would not simply fade away.

[D]

I mean, you could, you could say the same thing about, you know, when your character gets robbed in the metaverse, you know, just all this progress, it's still. Criminals exist. Happen to you even in the virtual world, you know.

[C]

Oh God, it reminds me of my first ever job was working as writing stories about a company who made ancient Egyptian tombs in second life. Isn't that cool? Anyway, similar to the uk, the American west at the time is being connected by the railroad at this time. And train robberies become a staple of frontier life and of the American psyche at large.

[D]

You know, I was gonna ask. Cause when you started talking about history of train robberies, I figured it was going to be Jesse James, Butch Cassidy and all that. But maybe that's just me being, you know, American centric.

[C]

Oh, well, I mean, you always aren't you, Danny. But yeah, we're. I mean, I got 20. I snuck 20 minutes of British stuff in. So we're going to dive straight back into America. So on October 6, 1866, brothers John and Simeon Reno lay on the first moving train robbery in American history. Stealing $13,000 from an engine in Jackson County, Indiana. And that is almost 300 grand in today's cash. Anybody who's played Red Dead Redemption will know how these things work. And more often than not, rich folks and banks are using the railroad to transport gold, jewels, bonds, all kinds of fancy things.

[D]

You know, when I started smoking weed when I was a young teenager, I stopped playing really. I stopped playing really good video games. Uh, you know, because I. Besides for like Mario Karter or Goldeneye. Cause I figured if I combined like a really good video game and smoking weed, it would just like I wouldn't do anything else. Right. Uh, and I, you know, long ago I stopped smoking weed. Haven't gotten back into video games. But watching the commercials for Red Dead was like the first time I was like, I should. I should do this.

[C]

I should get back into it.

[D]

It just looked incredible.

[C]

It's so good. Like I. I think when Covid hit, I bought a PS4 and spent pretty much every night up until 4am playing Red Dead. Last of Us. Oh, man. And then I thank God put it in storage.

[D]

Yeah, that's my concern.

[C]

But if I did that now, I would lose my family.

[D]

Reminds me that, you know, GTA 6, we're still. We want to be one of those radio stations. If you listen to us and you know someone there put out that word. We wanna. We could do it. We could do it, Sean.

[C]

I mean, I think we'll both be dead by the time GTA 6 comes out, but, you know, yeah, why not ask anyway? In 1873. Here we go. Jesse James, heard of him. Conducts his first train robbery. Holding up a moving engine near the town of Adair in Iowa, James and his boys loosen a section of track on the Chicago Rock Island Pacific Railway. I think that's still one today, right? I feel like I've seen that. And then they lie in wait with a rope attached to loose section. When their target rolls up, they pull on the rope, derailing the train, killing an engineer. And then they seek out a safe they think contains gold bullion, but they only find two grand inside, which is a measly $53,000 today. So they just go through the cars, robbing passengers Arthur Morgan style. In the late 1800s, Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch, what a great name for a criminal gang. Make train robberies their main source of criminal income. In turn, the railroads beef up security with armed guards and in some cases, special box cars designed to carry agents and their horses able to spring out at a moment's notice.

[D]

Land pirates. Is that. Is that a thing? Do people call them land pirates? I mean, they have to have, right? If not, like, I could have just invented something pretty. Pretty good. But I assume that's been.

[C]

This is like a couple years ago, right? I was in a pub in London and a woman who was a diplomat told me a story about Mongolian horseback bandits who are basically stealing and destroying stuff from oil pipelines made by the Chinese. And it sounded like the coolest feature article for a magazine I had ever heard. And I've since reached out to people and I'm not sure if it exists, but if it does, please, people write in, tell me, because I want to go and follow the horse bandits in Mongolia. It would be my dream anyway. Yes. Horseback bandits. Where are we? Pirates? I don't know. It's like drifting off in the dreamland. Land pirates. Land pirates, yeah. So these like, box cars with the horses able to jump out. This coincides with the emergence of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, which becomes the largest private security force on earth. And it's still going today. It's now subsidiary of the Swedish firm Securitas, which is so much more boring than it was back in the day. In 1901, Butch Cassidy and his pal Harry Longabel, aka the Sundance Kid, have to flee the Pinkertons to South America. And railroad security is so good that for a hot while, few people bother robbing trains anymore. Into the 1900s now, and the biggest train robbery in American history, carried out by A gang of four Texas brothers called the Newton Boys. On June 12, 1924. Using a tip from a corrupt postal inspector, the brothers board a mail train on the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad. Around 9pm that night, they climb over the engine tender and force the engineer and his fireman, I think the guy who stokes the coals, to stop the train outside. Rondout. Am I saying that right? Rondout? I don't know. A town around an hour north of Chicago. Bandits away in at the stop point in black Cadillacs and threatening staff. All the while, the Newton boys make off with pouches containing around $2 million. So you can pretty much double that.

[D]

Today, maybe 12 times, it's something like that. 30 times, who knows?

[C]

Yeah. Then the gang escapes. And just like the great gold robbery, that seems to be that. Only as a lot of these stories go, they have made one gaping error. The engineer had actually stopped the train way past the agreed highest point, causing one of the bandits to leave his post to go check on things. On the way, he's met by another one of the bandits. And in the confusion, he gets shot. This is Willie Newton, one of the brothers. Eventually he lets slip while confined about the others and the involvement of Dion o', Brien, a notorious Chicago mobster and longtime rival of Al Capone in the bootlegging wars. Cops are surprised at how well the Newt boys and their gangster associates have managed to pull this thing off. And they go through railroad employees certain there's an inside man, which of course there is. And soon enough, the finger of blame is pointing at a postal inspector named William J. Fahey. He'd been first on the scene in Rondout and he'd been struggling for cash up until late 1923, when he and his wife suddenly get seen flashing high end clothes and splashing cash around town. Faye also gets seen with a bunch of ladies of the night. The Instagram your crimes, folks. I mean, this is like really stupid stuff. Applies to train robbers in the 1920s and Instagram gangsters today. A few feeble lies later, Faye admits to his role masterminding America's biggest train robbery. And he gets sentenced to 25 years in prison. Sometimes, just sometimes, crime doesn't pay. A brief shout out to the Indian heist I mentioned at the top of the show. The that actually happened while William Faye was in custody in 1925, and it was actually more of an act of terror or freedom fighting, I guess you could say. Looking back, the day was August 9, 1925, and a group called the Hindustan Republican association, the HRA, not the IRA militants seeking to free India from British rule. I guess you could just place a lot of different letters in front of RA and it would have been British hating freedom fighters at the time. They hijack a train rolling through the ancient city of Lucknow. They smash open a British safe full of money with hammers and escape, shooting dead one passenger. In the chaos, the HRA evades capture for a month, but when the British Colonial police do track them down, they show no mercy and four of the men are hanged in 1927. What a lovely story. I'm going to miss out on the 1963 Great Train Robbery in the UK now because it's been done plenty and I think I actually have a family connection. Decent angle I might flesh out for a later episode, but that's quite enough of the past.

[B]

Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast with Benjamin Boster. If you're tired of sleepless nights, you'll love the I Can't Sleep podcast. I help quiet your mind by reading random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. Each episode provides enough interesting content to hold your attention and then your mind lets you drift off. Find it wherever you get your podcasts. That's I Can't Sleep with Benjamin Boster. Are you tired of the mainstream media's coverage of the NBA? You ever wonder about what they're hiding? The stories that don't fit the agenda? Do you want the truth? Do you think you can handle it? Welcome to Basketball Illuminati.

[D]

I'm Tom Haverstrom.

[B]

And I'm Amino Acid. With over two decades of experience navigating the shadowy depths of the NBA, we'll peel back the curtain and show you how the hidden cabal really operates.

[C]

Are you ready to be enlightened?

[B]

Basketball Illuminati Podcast? Join the illumination and keep your third eye open.

[A]

What if I told you that most of the modern day self help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer and international bestselling author. In each episode we cover research backed strategies like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change and the five mental strength building building exercises you can do from your couch. I also speak to world class experts like Dr. Nicole Cain who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by Addressing the Root cause. With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you. If you're ready to crush self doubt, conquer challenges, and become stronger than ever with therapist approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with therapist Amy Morin wherever you get your podcasts.

[C]

What about the Sinalo and Mojave train robberies happening right now? Well, I've already told you about what happened this January 13th, and that's when authorities finally caught up with members of the gang in Williams, where I've actually been to. I got crazy drunk, saw a mock shooter on the main street, and smoked weed with some strange cowboy types. Great breakfast burritos too, guys. Really nice little place you should visit on your holidays. Anyway, this rash of heists actually begins back in June 2023. Same MO mostly cutting air brakes with bolt cutters or electric saws. Same target, high value Nike sneakers. Sometimes in California, sometimes in Arizona. All BNSF trains.

[D]

I think there was also a big thing with those trains being hit in the stations, like parked. I don't know if it was targeted as closely or done as professionally as this. I remember seeing videos of people just like raiding cargo trains that were stopped in stations in like the Bay Area.

[C]

You know, I think, yeah, this, this will be similar kind of stuff because, I mean, this seems professional. Just massive.

[D]

This seems professional.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, this is way more coordinated.

[D]

That seemed like sloppy, just going for whatever was there.

[C]

But I mean, I guess it works. These trains are huge. How are you going to secure them? Like, it just seems impossible to do so. Anyway, a year after that first hit in the summer of 2023, cops arrest a guy they're pretty sure is ringleading it all. His name is Felipe Arturo Avalos Mejia, AKA Pollo, which is the Spanish for the game polo. And he lives between LA and Phoenix.

[D]

There's that dry British humor.

[C]

I know. It's so, so solid, isn't it? And this guy is believed to have been involved in train heists for over a decade. He's more prolific than a Sundance Kid or Jesse James. And he is packing some serious loot because when California and Homeland security forces raided 11 homes and 16 storage units linked to Pollo, they recover over $3 million of merch stolen exclusively from BNSF trains. Why is he hoarding all this stuff? I guess he just didn't get a chance to sell it at the time. They also impound no fewer than 10 stolen vehicles believed to have been used in the raid. And they find a bunch more Nike trainers at the home of a woman who's involved with Pollo. And I mean, they're really choking the chicken, these feds. They take Pollo into custody on June 21, 2024 at a restaurant in Huntington park which is pretty much like South Central la. And he's dining with another gentleman who's carrying a Louis vuitton bag holding $120,000 cash. And according to the New York Times quote, a detailed ledger listing Nike and other merchandise burglarized from BNSF trains alongside dollar amounts detailing its worth. I mean, I mean, come on, man, do a bit better than that. The authorities expect the heists slow down once they've got Pollo grilled.

[D]

Nice.

[C]

Yeah, thank you. But the heists, they just keep on coming and they're kind of everywhere along this line. These guys really, really know what they're doing by this point. Sometimes the crooks know somebody on the inside who can tell them where the goods are. Other times they just hop on board the moving train and they search for containers with high value security locks on them. I guess there's just signs saying expensive trainers on the side of the car, so they just go for them. On December 6th last year, investigators clawed back almost 50 grand of unreleased Nike dunk low midnight navy shoes. They're my favorites. But it's not all Nikes. Remember those super cool and hip gaming headsets? Smart vacuum cleaners have also gone missing during this time. Are they. I'm guessing they're just those little round robot guys who clean your friend's house while they're smoking weed and playing games with their gaming headset. There are a bunch of robberies in the desert ghost town of Amboy, California, including one where the getaway van got stuck in a sand berm. And two boys, 16 and 17 year old, were invest arrested. Each of these is netting the gangs around 400 grand in Nikes.

[D]

I'm actually curious about that number, like where it comes from. I assume it's the retail value, but like there's no way these guys are selling it to shops for the retail value. You know, they're probably getting. I don't even know what the percentage would be. But it's like any stolen boosted goods, you're getting like a less than half of what it is either way. I mean a decent amount of money, but definitely probably not 400k.

[C]

I am suspecting that they keep putting this number in the media or the police keep doing it because it's like the number of boxes they think are in the vans and the number of boxes they think the vans can hold times by what, like 400, 500 bucks or something? I don't know, but there's like about half a dozen of the things, like are the same amount of money, so it must be someone's rounding up somewhere. Anyway, police think at least seven robberies are connected via Sinaloan residents through Pollo, although there are more than 10 they think could also be a part of their scheme. Here's the New York Times again. Quote, while many of the trains were stopped by bandits who cut the air hoses on the brakes, the robbers have also sabotaged railway signal systems by busting the locks of signal boxes and cutting the control wires inside. In court documents, prosecutors called that form of sabotage a dangerous act that creates dark areas on the rail network. That guy is prosecutors trying to get big old sentences in court. Robbers have ample opportunity to board trains in the remote Arizona desert because they often have to stop on side tracks of four or five hours to let another train pass in the opposite direction. Because the trains can be three miles long, the engineer and conductor may have no idea that robbers have gotten on board miles behind them. By the time an engineer or conductor walks back to investigate, the robbers may be long gone. Now Pollo is pleading not guilty to possession of receiving goods stolen from interstate shipment, which I reckon, yeah, that's a pretty, that's a pretty loose one to be pleading not guilty to. And his trial is set to go ahead in June. And I'm betting he's in a. Yeah, he's in a spot above her with that one. But there's a wider conspiracy going on. Sinaloans crossing the border and carrying out daring train robberies is all clearly connected to organized crime. And the railroad companies have actually gone public in crying out for more protection, says an industry spokesman. Quote, railroads have invested millions in preventing these crimes across the 140,000 mile US rail network. However, the industry cannot disrupt these highly organized and often transnational criminal groups alone. All of which, guys, brings us right up to March 27th this year, just what, like four weeks ago when we're recording this. Happy St. George's Day, by the way. To those who celebrate when the Hai Nation Police Department in Arizona pulls over the driver of a maroon Chevy Tahoe, quote, suspected to be involved in train robberies in the area. During the stop, eight people hop out of the Chevy and flee. Cops manage to grab the driver and they discover boxes full of Nikes nearby. Shortly after, officers stop a woman driving a Toyota suv. She gets out of the vehicle. Then when the Cops step out too. She jumps back inside and leads them on an 80 mile chase before smashing into a guardrail near the California Arizona border. Experts now believe these individuals are directly linked to the Sinaloa cartel.

[D]

I mean, trying to do a getaway in the, in the desert In a Toyota SUV where there's probably no exits for 100 miles just doesn't strike me as like a smart thing to, to do.

[C]

I feel like. Did those massive chases, did they die out in the 90s? I feel like I haven't seen them much on TV.

[D]

Like I think they still happen in California a lot, but I don't think like straightaways like that strike me as not smart. But you know, what do I know?

[C]

I feel like half of my childhood encounters of American culture with car chases, which is very cool.

[D]

We had a lot of good ones, dude. Yeah, we had a good run. Great run.

[C]

Well done. Well done, America. It's, yeah, this, this train robbery thing, it's like, it is pretty wild. And even this week actually, cops arrested another two people believed to have stolen Nike shoes from trains on the I40 corridor between Williams and Kingman. Which if you're really into neon signs, Kingman is amazing. Seriously guys, Google train robbery Arizona and you're going to see just how much of this stuff there is. It is truly the wild west. And not a lot when you think about it has changed since the 1800s. Anyway, you've probably had your train robbery feel for the day. I hope you enjoyed the show. If you don't like the video, if you think we're ugly, don't write a review on Spotify. Just like write in your notes app and show it to a friend. If you do like it, please review. And I might not cry myself to sleep tonight. So cheers guys, we will see you next week.

[D]

I mean, what are you talking about, man? Every comment was like, Sean is so handsome. Then there's a bunch that are like, you guys look exactly how I thought. Or Sean looks like how Danny's supposed to look. Or Danny like Sean. Or Sean what I thought he would look like, Danny looks exactly like it, which I take as an insult. And there's dozens of videos of online by the way. Like you can, you could go, I was a correspondent, you can just google it. But yeah, funny. You got funny fans, man.

[C]

Good people. It's a great life that we lead. And I'm a 40 year old man in a, in a football shirt, which is, which is a good look when.

[D]

You'Re in public in your child's bedroom.

[C]

In my child's bedroom. Thank you. Yeah, thanks for reminding me. Sam Sa.

[A]

What do you think makes the perfect snack?

[B]

Hmm, it's gotta be when I'm really craving it and it's convenient. Could you be more specific when it's cravenient? Okay, like a freshly baked cookie made with real butter available right down the street at a.m. p.m. Or a savory breakfast sandwich I can grab in just a second at a.m. pM.

[A]

I'm seeing a pattern here.

[B]

Well yeah, we're talking about what I.

[A]

Crave, which is anything from AM pm.

[B]

What more could you want? Stop by AMPM where the snacks and drinks are perfectly craveable and convenient. That's cravenience AM PM Too much Good stuff. This is the story of the One as head of maintenance at a concert hall, he knows the show must always go on. That's why he works behind the scenes, ensuring every light is working, the H Vac is humming, and his facility shines with Granger's supplies and solutions for every challenge he faces. Plus 24. 7 customer support. His venue never misses a beat. Call quickgranger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.