SAN ANTONIO — The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office says victims continue to come forward alleging they were duped by a "sham company" that promised customized food truck trailers before never delivering the product and ignoring clients.
In late December investigators had identified 28 different victims, from whom the suspects behind Tu Trailita allegedly stole a collective $186,000. On Tuesday, Sheriff Javier Salazar said more than 35 people have come forward at this point, from whom $225,000 – and counting – has been stolen.
By the time it's all said and done, Salazar said, it's possible BCSO will find that nearly $400,000 was stolen as part of the scheme.
“As of now it doesn’t appear there was any legit business going on at this place," Salazar said. "What they were doing was they were taking a down payment, or taking the full amount in some instances, and telling people, ‘We’ll keep you updated on the progress of your trailer.’"
Instead, the sheriff said, no updates were provided, and if clients came calling the suspects would ghost them. When several of the clients banded together to confront the business's physical location along West Hildebrand Avenue, they found it shuttered.
Salazar said the scheme was wide-ranging.
“Some victims are in other parts of the country," he said. "Some of them were online transactions.”
Two people have been arrested so far. Miguel Angel Cuellar Lopez, 57, faces charges of engaging in organized criminal activity and theft. Salazar says Omar Alexis Emmanuel Cruz, 39, worked as a "sales associate" for the fake company and initially said he was victimized himself before being identified by victims; he was arrested the same charges as Lopez.
BCSO is still looking for Lopez’s son, 32-year-old Miguel Angel Cuellar Martinez, who is facing identical charges and is believed to be on the run in Mexico.
Salazar said Tu Trailita preyed upon immigrants in particular, many of whom were restaurant owners looking to expand into food trucks.
"I think they were taking for granted that these people may not want to make a report, maybe they felt these people were untrusting of authorities," he added. "It was actually pretty simple for our investigators to find out (who they were) and start uncovering layers.”
Victims can call the sheriff’s office at 210-335-6000.
'We want justice for them'
At a December news conference about the crimes, Salazar said some victims were still holding out hope that the company would deliver. But he emphasized that isn’t going to happen.
“They are not in a legitimate business. You are not going to get your product,” Salazar said.
Authorities said the suspects would take down payments for a food truck, even letting victims pick out what features they wanted. He said they would later ask for more and more money before finishing the truck, but the final product never appeared.
Some victims lost around $2,000. Others had paid more than $30,000 and had nothing to show for it.
Salazar said Henry Rodriquez, of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), initially called the sheriff’s office about the crimes, adding the organization was instrumental in helping victims come forward.
Rodriguez is the executive director of LULAC's local council and attended the December press conference along with Concilio Zapatista 4383 President Linda Alfaro, and one of the victims.
“These people, some of them, have invested their life savings just to have it taken by someone,” Rodriguez said. “We want justice for them. As the responsible organization that we are, we will stay on top of it.”
Salazar also said suspects tried to take advantage of immigrants in particular, because they believed the immigrants would be afraid to report them.
“They bet that a lot of these folks, being immigrants, were too afraid of law enforcement to come forward and give us information,” Salazar said. “The very least that we can do is bring these guys to justice, and any others like them, to let them know that the sheriff’s office is cracking down on this and we are not tolerating it.”
Salazar said immigrants have the right to report crimes to BCSO even if they are undocumented and would not face repercussions for doing so.
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