WEBVTT

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What Are Organized Retail Crime And Organized Theft Groups

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Yes.

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So organized retail crime.

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HSI defines it as two or more individuals involved in criminal activity that involves

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theft or fraud from retail stores across the country.

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It's not just shoplifting.

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These are criminal organizations known as organized theft groups that are involved in a myriad of

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criminal activity.

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These are criminal networks that operate together,

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seeking profit through stealing or fraudulently obtaining merchandise from these retail stores.

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Why Should Consumers Care About Organized Retail Crime And Organized Theft Groups

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It's extremely dangerous for the patrons working at these retail stores and there's fraudulent activity

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involved across the board.

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It is a profit making activity for these criminal networks and they do it solely for making

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money.

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So local studies by a couple trade associations have shown that the cost of consumer increases up to

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$500 per family member and cost of goods also lost revenues at the local

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state level up to 15 billion in,

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in lost profits for taxes.

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And the overall safety of the community is at danger as well because of the violence involved sometimes at these

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stores.

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Besides the fact that they should be reporting any suspected activity,

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criminal activity through the proper channels,

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either through the state or local or federal prosecution.

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Tip lines, 

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the consumer should pay attention when they're shopping online on these e market places.

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If the prices are substantially low,

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the merchandise is probably stolen.

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There's also a health and safety side to this.

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If you're going to be buying equipment or you're gonna be buying medicines or anything to do with health and beauty

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products,

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you should be paying attention that these products are possibly,

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could be stolen and that they're a health issue to you and your family.

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Why Should Law Enforcement Agencies Partner With HSI To Stop Organized Theft Groups

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We have over 400 investigative authorities and our unique border switch authority brings to bear a

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lot of resources.

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Besides the fact that we have 30 SAC  officers across the country.

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We're in over 80 countries around the world.

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So that's an international nexus that HSI brings to the table when they're trying to identify these

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networks,

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these are criminal networks that are tied to gang activity,

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drug activity and also they're in it for profit.

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So you're talking about organizations that are making money hurting the economy,

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working with impunity and at times operating on these online marketplaces with no

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fear of being arrested.

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It's important for everybody to understand that we can't do it alone.

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And that HSI is looking for partnerships across the board,

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either through the state and local level or with prosecution teams that want to do more in this space,

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either via training or helping them identify cases,

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build out some of their networks to identify bigger networks of cases that we can maybe dismantle

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HSI we're there day in and day out with them fighting this threat of or as we told crime.

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What Is The International Impact Of Organized Retail Crime And Organized Theft Groups

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Organized Theft groups are sophisticated criminal transnational organizations that profit from

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illegally obtaining goods that are later sold through e-commerce platforms,

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through brick and mortar locations or through online marketplaces.

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These are sophisticated transnational organized crime networks that have ties to Latin America.

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We call them South American theft groups and they're associated with a high level criminal activity

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in the United States due to our vast amount of authorities and our border

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search authority.

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HSI has launched operation boiling point which is a sophisticated targeting campaign to go

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after these theft groups.

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And we're partnering with local state and federal prosecutors along with our overseas attache offices

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based in Latin America that we work with day in and day out to pass information to

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deconflict cases and to make sure that we can prosecute these either domestically or

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internationally in their home countries.

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We're taking the the threat very serious South American theft groups.

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They're sophisticated and they're solely in it for making money.

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Help us keep your community safe. Report Crime. 1-877-4-HSI-TIP

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Fighting Global Threats, Protecting American Lives