[PARAGON]

Almond-theft case cracked; two arrested



By Christina Jewett - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PST Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Money does not grow on trees, but two Sacramento businessmen allegedly discovered almonds to be the next best thing.
Sacramento police arrested Sukhwinder Singh Grewal, 41, and Amrik Singh, 27, early Monday on suspicion of possessing stolen property, saying they are the masterminds behind the theft of $2 million worth of almonds throughout the Central Valley over the last year.
Detectives from Merced, Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties worked Sunday evening through Monday afternoon, dismantling what they described as a snack food syndicate that had sprung up in a warehouse off Del Paso Boulevard the suspects had rented.
The pair are accused of hot-wiring tractor-trailers or hauling off containers filled with about 40,000 pounds of almonds processed and packaged to be shipped overseas. They loaded the nuts into rental trucks, deserting the stolen trucks and trailers in residential and industrial areas -- several near the North Sacramento warehouse at 2040 Railroad Drive, detectives say.
The suspects were tripped up Sunday when a tipster who had read about the growing problem of nut thefts grew suspicious: He saw workers unload boxes from a variety of nut processors from a rental truck and called police to the warehouse Sunday afternoon.
"That was the break in the case we've been waiting for," Merced County Sheriff's Detective Vince Gallagher said. "At this point it's important to secure these nuts and get them returned to their rightful owners."
Hartley Spycher, a Merced County almond processor, watched Monday afternoon as workers moved 50-pound boxes of almonds out of a West Sacramento storage shed tied to the suspects' operation.
After seeing news reports about recent almond heists, Spycher installed security cameras and extra locks on his trailers.
The result: He got to play and replay surveillance tape of thieves stealing two trailers each containing 38,000 pounds of almonds on Nov. 6.
"It's pretty nice to get them back," Spycher said, watching as nuts spilled out of a box that a worker heaved into a truck.
Spycher said the nuts will likely be reprocessed and sold.
Grewal ran a legitimate business called Sona Spice Co., which imported cookies, teas and rice from India and shipped goods to mom-and-pop stores that serve the Indian community, Gallagher said.
Detectives found 60,000 pounds of almonds and 13,000 pounds of walnuts in the North Sacramento warehouse. Paperwork led them to the storage facility in West Sacramento filled with 60,000 pounds of nuts, which sell for about $2.50 to $3 per pound, they said.
In the warehouse, the suspects took nuts out of 50-pound boxes marked with processors' names -- including Del Rio Nut Co., Grower Direct Nut Co. and Zanont and Sons -- and disposed of the boxes, police said.
The nuts were loaded into unmarked 25-pound boxes and sold to small, independent grocers and mass-market customers in Canada, Gallagher said. He says he believes the men are also responsible for stealing and selling an additional 520,000 pounds of nuts.
He said detectives were lucky to discover the operation while 11 workers were moving the stolen almonds. Police think the workers were unwitting accomplices to Grewal and Singh.
"If we had come a day later they may have gotten rid of the telltale signs of theft," Gallagher said. "We could have showed up a day later and found white boxes of nuts."
District attorneys from the victims' home counties are likely to file additional grand theft and burglary charges, Stanislaus County sheriff's spokesman Royjindar Singh said.
California grows virtually all the almonds consumed in the United States. The crop is the state's leading agricultural export -- surpassing wine, said Marsha Venable, communications coordinator for the Almond Board of California. Just more than 1 billion pounds of almonds are expected to be harvested in California this year, she said.
The almond theft was the third such agricultural crime in as many years in Sacramento.
Two men were arrested in 2004 for conspiring to steal $800,000 worth of milk and butter from Crystal Cream and Butter Co.
In 2005, Sacramento police thwarted the sale of 35,000 pounds of broccoli stolen from a Santa Barbara company. Thieves tried to unload it to a Sacramento company that set up a vegetable sting with police, leading to two arrests.