Duo arrested in $16.1M recycling scheme

Thousands of pounds of bottles, cans recovered

Two Arizona residents are accused of defrauding California’s beverage container recycling program of $16.1 million by shipping in thousands of pounds of bottles and cans from out of state, lawenforcement officials announced Monday.

The CalRecycle gives state residents a chance to earn back a tax added onto the cost of most bottled goods sold in California by recycling them at special recycling centers throughout the state.

Arizona law-enforcement officials and agents with the California Department of Justice arrested 49-year-old Miguel Bustillos of Glendale and accuse him of being the ringleader of the scheme.

California DOJ agents said Bustillos, the owner of Bustillos’ Trucking, operated his business for the sole purpose of smuggling out-of-state containers into California.

Law-enforcement agents also arrested 57-year-old truck driver Anthony Sanchez of Tucson and 56-year-old broker Amaury Avila-Medina of Sylmar, California.

Sanchez and Bustillos were extradited to California, according to a news release from the California Department of Resource Recycling and Recovery.

All three suspects face charges of felony recycling fraud, attempted grand theft and conspiracy. Felony recycling fraud and related crimes carry a potential sentence of up to three years in prison.

The trio is accused of stealing $16.1 million from CalRecycling over three years. Nearly 30,000 pounds of aluminum and plastic bottles were recovered when warrants were served on several locations in the Phoenix area, where the company was believed to load recycling containers into California-bound trucks. The recovered containers were valued at around $42,000.

This is the first recycling bust across state lines, according to the California Department of Resource Recycling and Recovery.