Three men have been arrested for allegedly stealing 1,600 pounds of meat from a truck in Northeast Philadelphia, officials announced Wednesday.
Douglas Mathis, 36, Jamir Scott, 25 and Tariq Duncan, 31, all from Philadelphia, were arrested Tuesday on charges of corrupt organization, theft and related offenses.
The three suspects, wearing dark clothing and masks, were witnessed early Tuesday morning carrying 25 cases of beef out of a truck parked along the 7300 block of Edmund Street, according to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office.
They were allegedly seen “breaking a lock on the tractor-trailer” and then bringing the meat — valued at $7,000 — into their van, prosecutors said.
They were arrested by Philadelphia police as part of the “Operation Beef Bandit” investigation. For the past two months, the collaborative effort led by New Jersey State Police has focused on an organized criminal crew responsible for a series of burglaries at service areas along the New Jersey Turnpike.
“This was tenacious investigative work that involved collaboration between law enforcement agencies to stop high-value thefts from parked tractor trailers,” Attorney General Michelle Henry said in a statement. ‘I commend the timely work of our Organized Crime Section who tracked this crew and, essentially, caught them in the act.”
The three men were arraigned on Tuesday. Their bail was set at $200,000 cash for each suspect.
Last week, as part of “Operation Beef Bandit,” New Jersey troopers arrested four men accused of being part of a criminal organization targeting trucks carrying high-value goods such as meat, alcohol, and seafood across the tri-state area.
