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Federal prosecutors have indicted 12 people for their involvement in an organized cargo theft conspiracy targeting Nike's North American logistics center in Memphis, Tenn.
According to documents unsealed by the Department of Justice Tuesday, the defendants are accused of working together and with others to transport stolen Nike retail product throughout the U.S. between July 2021 and June 2024.
The investigation says the co-defendants stole at least $2 million in Nike product during this timeframe. Six of the co-conspirators worked for Nike throughout the theft ring.
Named in the indictment were Roy Lee Harvey Jr.; Bereket Abraham; Jorge Cuellar; Keith Cannon; Cadarian Mack; Joel Deluna; and the six now-former Nike employees: Michael Perkins, Marquesio Robinson, Julian Baker, Cortez Spencer, Roderico McClellan and Damon Johnson.
On May 21, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging all 12 individuals with conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property, and one defendant with interstate transportation of stolen property.
"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," said U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee D. Michael Dunavant, in a statement. "In order to protect the critical economic and logistics infrastructure of Memphis, we will always aggressively prosecute those who threaten it."
In a typical theft, the defendants allegedly would identify product that they wanted to resell, locate it in the Nike warehouse and create shipping labels with predetermined locations to send the merchandise throughout the U.S. From there, defendants would retrieve and resell the stolen product through various avenues.
Prosecutors claim that the co-conspirators created and used 3,119 UPS shipping labels on stolen shipments from the Memphis facility during the alleged operation. The shipments were sent to destinations in California, Wisconsin and Indiana.
Harvey was the lone defendant charged on the two separate counts.
In January 2024, the LAPD arrested Harvey, a Los Angeles resident, on state charges related to the stolen Nike shoes. He was apprehended after receiving 27 cartons of Nike shoes with the labels he allegedly created printed on them.
Co-conspirators Delina, Abraham and Cuellar owned shoe resale businesses that are alleged to have sold the stolen goods.
Deluna operated Chicago Emporium, while Abraham and Cueller ran L.A.-based businesses Coolkicks and Horhead Investments. Cueller also ran multiple social media accounts under the name Horhead Sales.
Mack posted shoes for sale on online marketplaces including StockX and GOAT.
Harvey's arrest prompted the LAPD and the FBI to coordinate their investigations, revealing that Harvey and Abraham conspired to print the shipping labels using equipment and a UPS account associated with Abraham and Coolkicks.
After receiving the shoe shipments, Abraham and Cuellar paid Harvey and other co-conspirators more than $900,000 for the stolen shoes, which were either sold online or through Coolkicks to the public.
The indictment alleges that Perkins, a floor manager at the Memphis logistics center, would bring labels into the facility as part of the scheme. From there, other employees, including Baker, Spencer, McClellan and Johnson, would place the labels on specified cartons for shipment.
Perkins was placed on administrative leave after Harvey's arrest. But after he quit the job, he purportedly kept distributing the labels to the co-conspirators through June.
"As alleged, these twelve defendants stole millions of dollars' worth of merchandise and sold those stolen goods at the direct expense of sellers, shippers, and buyers," said special agent in charge Terence G. Reilly of the FBI Nashville field office. "Organized cargo theft doesn't just steal products-it steals time, trust and profitability across the entire supply chain. Those who conspire to disrupt commerce and harm consumers will be met with a coordinated law enforcement response. The FBI's Cargo Theft Task Force is committed to ridding our supply chains of organized crime and will relentlessly pursue those who seek to exploit or disrupt it."
This case was investigated by the FBI Nashville field office with assistance from bureaus in Los Angeles and Chicago. It has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Thomas L. Parker.
All defendants face a maximum of five years in prison, a maximum $250,000 fine or both. For the second count, Harvey faces a possible 10 additional years imprisonment, another fine as large as $250,000 or both.
