In recent years, organized retail crime has become a highly efficient and lucrative profession for criminal rings across the U.S.
Major retailers like Ulta, Walgreens, and Walmart have been terrorized by criminal enterprises that steal thousands of dollars of stock to sell at flea markets and online.
Increase in Organized Retail Crime
Organized retail crime is a term used to define well-coordinated groups of thieves who specialize in shoplifting large quantities of items to resell on the black market.
The National Retail Federation states that retailers lost a staggering $40.5 billion to theft in 2022, with a large portion coming from organized retail crime.
Crime Gangs Who Specialize in Retail Thievery
CNBC spent over eight months investigating several different organized crime rings that specialized in retail thievery.
One investigation saw them follow a crime ring based in San Diego and under the command of Michelle Mack.
A Small Fortune in Cosmetics Stolen from Ulta
Mack was supposedly the mastermind behind the “California Girls,” a retail crime gang that frequently targeted stores such as Ulta and Sephora for cosmetics.
They would later sell the items online at a fraction of their typical price and make millions of dollars doing so.
Crime Gangs Move Between States
Mack never stole the items herself. Instead, she employed a team of thieves who would travel beyond the borders of California into Utah, Oregon, Colorado, Texas, and Florida to shoplift.
Mack carefully planned out which stores she would send her crew to and ensured they only took the merchandise from which they could make the most money.
Michelle Mack Is Finally Arrested
The California Girls grew to have quite the reputation before their empire eventually came crumbling down last December.
Mack was arrested at the end of 2023, bringing an end to her criminal enterprise.
Retail Thievery Plagues U.S. Stores
Well-organized crime rings focused on retail crime, like Mack’s, have plagued stores across the U.S. in recent years, costing companies billions in annual losses.
The criminal gangs have forced retailers to begin locking up expensive cosmetic items, hiring more security, and even pushing for stricter regulations, per CNBC.
Walgreens Hit Hard By Organized Crime
Walgreens is another American retailer that’s struggled to combat the increase in organized retail crime.
The surge forced the pharmaceutical chain to close more than five San Francisco stores in 2021. However, according to The Guardian, they later announced that the closures may have been overexaggerated.
Federal Agents Forced to Get Involved
Due to the elaborate nature of the crimes and their increasing organization, federal agents have been involved in taking down the crime rings.
According to some agents, retail thievery is just one facet of their extensive empire.
The Extensive Empires of Retail Crime Rings
Adam Parks, an assistant special agent at HSI, explained how extensive some of the organizations are.
“We’re talking about operations that have fleets of trucks, 18-wheelers that have palletized loads of stolen goods, that have cleaning crews that actually clean the goods to make them look brand new,” he said (via CNBC).
Crime Rings Invest Big Money into Their Operations
According to Parks, crime rings invest plenty of capital into their business.
“Just like any business, they’ve invested their capital into business assets like shrink wrap machines, forklifts,” he said.
The Effect of Organized Crime on the Surrounding Communities
According to Ulta CEO Dave Kimbell, the increase in organized retail crime is beginning to negatively affect communities in the surrounding regions.
“It also impacts the communities in which we live,” he said. “If people don’t feel safe going in to shop in certain areas of a community, it really has an impact and can change neighborhoods and change communities over time.”
