California makes first recycling fraud border bust of 2016

California’s Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) has reported the first recycling fraud border bust of 2016, saying that Daniel Rosales, 45, of Baldwin Park was due to appear at the Riverside County Superior Court in Indio Feb. 16 to be arraigned on charges of felony recycling fraud and attempted grand theft. He faces six months to three years in prison if convicted.

“Truck drivers need to understand that CalRecycle will not tolerate recycling fraud, which essentially steals money from the honest Californians who pay CRV at the cash registers,” CalRecycle Director Scott Smithline says. “Anyone who helps these criminal organizations haul out-of-state used beverage containers into our state to make fraudulent CRV redemptions will be caught and punished.”

Jan. 15, 2016, California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) agents at the CDFA border checkpoint in Blythe, California, conducted an inspection of a 53-foot semitrailer, marked as BNS Trucking out of Baldwin Park, and discovered used beverage containers inside, CalRecycle reports. The driver, Rosales, produced a bill of lading indicating he was hauling bottle caps. Rosales was unable to produce the Imported Materials Report, legally required for anyone transporting used beverage containers into California, according to CalRecycle.

CDFA agents alerted members of the California Department of Justice’s Recycling Fraud Team. After conducting a brief interview, Rosales was placed under arrest and his truck was impounded. It was later determined that Rosales was hauling 6,622 pounds of aluminum and 2,606 pounds of plastic used beverage containers with a potential CRV (California Redemption Value) of $13,550.

California Department of Justice (CDOJ) investigates and prosecutes criminal cases on behalf of CalRecycle, which has administrative authority over the state’s beverage container recycling program. In addition to CalRecycle’s interagency agreements with CDOJ and CDFA, the department aggressively combats fraud and illicit payments through enhanced precertification training of recycling center owners, probationary reviews of recycling centers, oversight of certified processors, monitoring and tracking the disposition of imported materials, risk assessment of daily claims for reimbursement, application of prepayment controls and conducting postpayment reviews and investigations.