12 individuals have been criminally charged for their alleged involvement in theft at Nike’s logistics center in Memphis, TN.
The indictments were announced yesterday by the US Justice Department and are based on a multi-year investigation by the FBI’s Cargo Theft Task Force and the US Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, Michael Dunavant. The findings alleged that the 12 defendants, Roy Harvey, Jr., Bereket Abraham, Jorge Cuellar, Keith Cannon, Cadarian Mack, Julian Baker, Cortex Spencer, Roderico McClellan, Damon Johnson, Joel Deluna, Michael Perkins, and Marquesio Robinson, worked together and with other individuals to transport stolen Nike retail products throughout the US.
The investigation showed that from July 2021 to around June 2024, the defendants would seek out products they wanted to resell, ship them out of the Nike warehouses to predetermined locations to retrieve, and resell. The investigation revealed that at least $2 million worth of products were stolen during that timeframe.
“Memphis is proudly known as ‘America’s Distribution Center,’ and organized cargo theft conspiracies disrupt and harm crucial interstate commerce and businesses here in West Tennessee and across America. In order to protect the critical economic and logistics infrastructure of Memphis, we will always aggressively prosecute those who threaten it,” Dunavant said in a statement.
A federal grand jury returned an indictment that formally charged the 12 individuals on May 21 with conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property and one defendant with interstate transportation of stolen property. The case is currently being reviewed by US District Judge Thomas L. Parker.
