DA thinks big on scrap metal case

Sam Morris

Junked cars and transmissions fill a lot Aug. 13 in North Las Vegas after Metro Police conducted a raid on ABC Recycling on suspicion of dealing in stolen material.

By Jeff German

Thursday, March 5, 2009 | 2 a.m.

The district attorney’s office has filed a rare criminal complaint against the owner of a scrap metal recycling company and several associates, charging them with racketeering for allegedly running a criminal organization that dealt in stolen property.

The case reflects a renewed effort by local authorities to apply tough racketeering statutes to a growing number of complex and time-consuming criminal investigations — a tactic long used by the feds.

According to the complaint, Jose Calvano, the 65-year-old owner of ABC Recycling, faces 35 additional felony counts, mostly for possession of stolen vehicles that were to be crushed and sold for scrap. He’s also charged with unlawfully possessing two statues stolen from Opportunity Village and metal valves stolen from the Las Vegas Valley Water District. His company bought the valves in April 2008 knowing they were stolen, authorities allege. The thefts left the valley’s water system at risk of contamination and caused the Water District to shut down service at 16 locations.

ABC Recycling closed its doors in August after a police raid that was part of a two-year crackdown on thefts of copper wire and other metal from neighborhoods, businesses and construction sites across the valley. The investigation, dubbed “Operation Copperhead,” was spearheaded by Metro Police.

Thieves at the time were stealing copper wire from wherever they could find it, including air conditioners and streetlights, Sgt. Shane Robb said. The highest-profile case left U.S. 95 without lights from Eastern Avenue to Sunset Road for months, but thieves turned many neighborhood streets dangerously dark too.

“It was ugly,” Robb explained. “It cost ... millions of dollars in cash and man-hours to replace the wires.”

Calvano’s activities fit perfectly into the racketeering statutes because he was using his scrap metal business to forge relationships with criminals selling him the stolen goods, authorities allege. Police say he told stories of “breaking knee caps” to intimidate his associates and, like many organized crime operations, hid his illicit income through “cash-intensive” business dealings.

Although federal authorities have used racketeering charges against traditional organized crime groups and drug cartels, local prosecutors have not made racketeering a priority.

District Attorney David Roger recalled that his office last filed such a case about 20 years ago, and it didn’t turn out well for prosecutors. The case, which involved street gangs, was tossed out by a judge before it even got to trial, he said.

Local authorities have shied away from racketeering cases because they are more complicated and require more investigative resources, including undercover work, Roger said.

But in recent months, he noted, police have conducted more long-term investigations and, as a result, have recognized the value of the racketeering statute, which has tougher penalties and a longer statute of limitations than other felony charges.

So Roger said he’s expecting police to bring him more racketeering cases for prosecution in the months ahead.

“Racketeering carries a heavy hammer for individuals engaged in organized criminal activities,” Roger said. “And we’re able to explain to the jury the full picture of those activities.”

Calvano, who faces up to 20 years on the racketeering charge, has not been arrested. His attorney, Joe Sciscento, said he’s trying to arrange for his surrender.

“We’re going to contest this,” Sciscento said. “There was no intention of any criminal acts on his part.”

During the ABC Recycling raid in August, detectives confiscated $250,000 from Calvano, along with construction equipment and 62 boxes of stripped copper and aluminum, records show.

Since the raid, Robb said, thefts of copper and other metals in the valley have declined considerably.

Other recycling yards are making greater efforts to turn away thieves looking to sell their ill-gotten goods, and the price of copper, which was selling for $3 a pound on the street in August, has dipped below $1 a pound in the declining economic climate, Robb explained.

But the thefts, Robb said, still pose a threat to the community.

Metro Police have lobbied state lawmakers to pass legislation making it harder for scrap metal buyers and sellers to profit from thievery.

On Wednesday, Assembly Bill 233, which increases the penalties for stealing scrap metal and forces recyclers to keep more detailed records of transactions with sellers, was introduced, and Metro Lt. Tom Roberts, the department’s government liaison, said he thinks lawmakers will pass it.

In their reports of the ABC Recycling investigation, detectives said Calvano and his associates were buying anything they could get their hands on, including a steady stream of stolen vehicles that could be stripped and sold for spare parts and scrap.

Detectives said they heard from one man who had followed a thief to ABC Recycling looking to sell copper wire and tubing stolen from his mobile home. When the man informed an ABC employee during the transaction that the copper was stolen from him, the employee had the man escorted off the property and the copper was then bought from the thief, detectives said.

In August 2007, the reports said, ABC Recycling employees failed to inform police that they had bought the stolen Opportunity Village statues, which had been cut into pieces. The theft of the metal sculptures, which were unique, had been well-publicized at the time.

On two occasions before the August raid, informants working with detectives sold Embarq telephone cable and Nevada Power utility cable to ABC Recycling, the reports said. The company should have recognized that the cables belonged to the utilities and should have refused to buy them.