3 convicted of stealing truck full of batteries

A Whitfield County, Ga., jury convicted three men last week on charges of stealing a semi truck with $150,000 worth of batteries inside, the first time anyone in Georgia has been convicted on such a charge.

Yosvani Cordero, 42, Yoandy Linares-Machado, 32, and Alexander Rodriguez-Moreno, 37, all were convicted Friday on charges of cargo theft, said Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent John Cannon, who oversees the major theft unit.

According to a news release from Conasauga Judicial Circuit District Attorney Bert Poston, the three men stole an 18-wheeler full of Duracell batteries in Tunnel Hill in November 2014. Someone later dropped the product off in Miami, Cannon said.

The agents were able to identify Cordero, LinaresMachado and Rodriguez-Moreno through an analytics company called CargoNet, which keeps a database of reported stolen products. Cannon declined to provide more details because Cordero and Linares-Machado also face charges in Bartow County of stealing a truck containing a multi-million-dollar shipment of hydrocodone pills.

“Through investigation, we were able to determine [Cordero, Linares-Machado and Rodriguez-Moreno] got the stolen loads and transported them to Miami,” Cannon said of the battery theft.

The Georgia Legislature created the cargo theft law in 2014 because officers felt the charge of theft by taking “was not specific enough,” Cannon said. The sentence for the charge depends on the value of the material stolen.

If the product is worth less than $10,000, a defendant faces one to 10 years in prison and a fine of $10,000$100,000. In the Whitfield County case, the defendants stole a product determined to be worth between $100,000$1 million — so they each face a sentence of five to 25 years in prison and a fine between $50,000-$1 million.

If the defendants stole a product worth more than $1 million, the sentence would be 10-30 years in prison and a fine of at least $100,000.

Cannon said law enforcement authorities also wanted to change the law because they felt it could deter crime in the state. According to CargoNet, Georgia has consistently been one of the top-5 states in which cargo theft occurs. But last year, Cannon said, the percentage of thefts fell 68 percent, dropping Georgia from the top five.

Cannon said police have made other arrests since the law changed in 2014. And prosecutors have brought those cases to a close with plea deals.

But the Whitfield County case is the first one to go before a jury and receive a conviction, Cannon said.

Cordero, Linares-Machado and Rodriguez-Moreno will be sentenced in May.