One man’s plywood is another man’s contraband gold.
The surging demand for one of the most basic elements of Charlotte’s booming homebuilding industry has led to the arrest of four men, who authorities accuse of operating a black market plywood ring that preyed on residential construction sites on both sides of the state line.
New filings in the Charlotte federal courts identify the defendants as brothers Pablo Morales Hernandez and Rafael De Jesus Morales Hernandez, along with Renato Hernandez Montes and Jose Saul Morales Veneroso, all of Charlotte. They are each charged with interstate transportation of stolen property conspiracy. All are being held in the Mecklenburg County jail.
According to an affidavit by Nathan Peachey, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, the defendants treated unguarded home sites like unlocked banks.
During repeated overnight raids on Charlotte’s emerging exurbs, the men stole thousands of dollars in plywood from home-construction sites, according to the affidavit. Their favorite hunting grounds included sprawling South Carolina neighborhoods under construction from Indian Land to Fort Mill, as well as other homebuilding areas in Charlotte, Union County and as far north as Concord, Peachey claims.
Morales Veneroso, according to prosecutors, was the big plywood buyer, paying the others between $15 and $25 for individual sheets that sold for $70 to $80 in area home improvement stores. He also told them what construction areas to hit for their contraband, prosecutors say. The court documents don’t say what he did with the lumber products he bought.
Rise in construction costs
The theft of lumber off construction sites has become a national problem, particularly after the price of plywood doubled and tripled beginning last spring.
First, the pandemic cut lumber production and supply lines just as demand for new homes soared. The result: historically high costs for plywood. As of May 1, 2021, according to the National Association of Homebuilders, the premium prices for plywood and other lumber products were adding almost $36,000 to the average single-family home and $119 in rent for a new apartment.
That makes plywood and other lumber products the new coin of the realm for a black market, stolen construction-supplies industry that already runs into billions of dollars annually.
High-growth areas in the Southeast and the West appear to be popular targets.
In one case, police in the greater Fort Worth, Texas, area in July charged four men with stealing $50,000 of building supplies. Most of it was lumber, including hundreds of sheets of plywood.
In Colorado Springs, Colo, home builders joined with police to offer a $1,000 rewards for tips on lumber thefts. The skyrocketing price of lumber last spring also led to a jump in thefts in and around Charlotte. In a one-month period beginning May 3, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police records show 16 lumber thefts off job sites under construction, according to WCNC.
Plywood Highway
For the current Charlotte defendants, U.S. 521 South became a veritable Plywood Highway to homebuilding hot spots across the state line. The retail value of the plywood the defendants stole from the Fort Mill and Indian Land areas alone topped $5,000, Peachey’s affidavit claims.
Local law enforcement officials cracked the theft ring by being in the right places at the right times.
Last month, in response to multiple theft reports from residential construction sites, the Lancaster County (S.C.) Sheriff’s Office began patrolling areas where new homes were being built.
On Jan. 19, just after midnight, a deputy was patrolling the sprawling Carrington neighborhood in Indian Land when he came upon a blue van driving slowly past construction sites, Peachey’s affidavit alleges. Brothers Pablo and Rafael De Jesus Morales Hernandez were inside. The deputy also found some open beer containers, glass smoking pipes and more than 2 grams of methamphetamine, the affidavit alleges. While the brothers were arrested on drugs and alcohol charges, according to the affidavit, the topic of their interviews with investigators in the coming days would soon turn to plywood.
On Jan. 20, at 2:13 a.m., deputies found Hernandez Montes in a parked van by a home site in the Avondale community, also in Indian Land. He was arrested on drug and weapon charges but told authorities the next day that his actual night job was stealing plywood with the Morales Hernandez brothers, the affidavit shows. To increase their take, according to the affidavit, he bought a second van for the brothers to use for their thefts.
As with the brothers, Hernandez Montes said he sold his contraband to Morales Veneroso, often dropping it off at the buyer’s home on Eastway Drive, according to the affidavit.
Rafael Morales Hernandez told investigators that he started stealing plywood right around Christmas. By the time of his arrest, he had made 10 trips to steal plywood by himself, three other trips with his brother, and six or seven trips with Hernandez Montes, according to the affidavit. Morales Hernandez estimated that he was paid $500 to $550 per load. The four were indicted last week and are scheduled to be arraigned on March 1.
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https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article258377553.html