A second suspect has been arrested in connection with the theft of a tractor-trailer containing approximately $100,000 worth of poultry products. Police say he’s also a suspect in a separate $400,000 meat theft.
Jorge Lyen Blanco-Diaz, a 38-year-old man from Hialeah, Fla., was arrested Monday on charges including grand theft of cargo, grand theft of a vehicle and unlawful use of a communications device, records show, NBC Miami reports.
A second man, 49-year-old Raul Bello, was arrested earlier in October on the same charges in connection with the chicken theft that occurred on Sept. 15 when a tractor-trailer was stolen near the driver’s home in Miami.
The truck driver said he’d been alerted by his sister that the truck, worth $60,000, and trailer, worth $80,000, were gone. In addition, $100,000 worth of assorted frozen poultry was inside the trailer, too.
Cameras caught the tractor-trailer heading twice being followed by a white Nissan NV200 van, the report said. Police tracked down the van and began surveillance. They discovered Bello driving the van, the article said.
Cell phone information showed Bello in the area of the tractor-trailer theft. The information also showed he had communicated with a number associated with a co-defendant in the tractor trailer theft, NBC Miami reports.
Co-defendant Blanco-Diaz was already on house arrest with a GPS ankle monitor related to two other cases. Ankle monitor data showed Blanco-Diaz was at the theft location the date of the crime before and during the time the truck and trailer were stolen.
Blanco-Diaz, identified as being part of a major theft organization and suspect in another cargo theft case from September 2023 involving a truck and semi-trailer loaded with assorted meat products worth around $400,000, was taken into custody.
Bello, who is on probation until November 2030 in a case involving burglary, assault and possession of illegal weapons, was taken into custody when he drove the Nissan van to the Florida Department of Corrections Probation and Parole Services Office, NBC Miami reports.
Both men were booked into jail. Attorney information wasn’t available.
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