A reminder to would-be smugglers -- buckle up!
"Sleepy" got pulled over in Burbank for driving without a seatbelt, but little did authorities know at the time, they've hauled a big fish from the world of Russian-Armenian organized crime.
The crime ring canvassed truck yards from Oxnard to Chino, sneaking in at night and lumbering away with big rigs full of fancy TVs, children's clothes, new tires - even a $55,000 shipment of Gatorade.They hauled the loot - worth some $10 million in all - to a Van Nuys warehouse that served as a central drop-off point, where they unloaded the cargo in the middle of the night. Later, they'd take an inventory, sort it and sell it on the black market.
If not for the arrest of a guy named Sleepy and the carelessness of the group's ringleader - who forgot to buckle up while driving through Burbank late last month - the stolen trucks might still be rumbling through the night, authorities say.
Read the rest of Daily News reporter (and East of the 5 alum) Jason Kandel's story here.