Sheriff’s Det. Capt. Mark Jackson, left, and Sgt. Jarrod Gourgeus, at Southern Recycling in New Orleans, in front of a pile of items stolen from St. Bernard and sold as scrap to arrested suspect Anthony Moley, who re-sold it to Southern Recycling.

The owner of an illegal Chalmette scrap yard, who bought stolen property, has been arrested and his business shut down, in an ongoing investigation into the theft of Parish property.

Anthony Moley, 47, of Violet, was arrested on February 2 for one count of possession of stolen property and a second count of failure to maintain records of transactions, which are required when buying second-hand goods such as scrap metals.

According to Parish records, Moley was licensed only for disposal, and not as a scrap yard, Sheriff-elect James Pohlmann said.

In the course of their investigation, sheriff’s detectives discovered Moley had been illegally running a scrap operation for nearly two months. They also found evidence that he had bought and then re-sold stolen property.

Detectives contacted Southern Recycling in New Orleans, the third-party scraping operation that Moley had frequented, and matched property brought in by Moley to items stolen in St. Bernard Parish, Pohlmann said. According to Southern Recycling’s records, Moley had received $3,000 for the materials.

Pohlmann marked this as an important arrest in thwarting thefts in the parish, which have been highlighted in an ongoing investigation surrounding an estimated $100,000 in missing parish property.

“It doesn’t take long for criminals to find out where they can sell stolen property, which, in turn, leads to further burglaries and thefts,” Pohlmann said. “We won’t let people help others profit from crime.”

A total of five suspects, including Moley, have been arrested in recent weeks for large-scale theft operations in St. Bernard. This includes the January 31 arrest of Recreation Program Manager Jeff Sanchez. Sanchez and accomplices had been arrested for stealing lockers, washer-dryers, and a $35,000 exhaust-system from a Parish Government storage area.

Pohlmann would not comment on the ongoing investigations at this time, but Sgt. Jarrod Gourgues of the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Office, who has been working on internal Parish Government security, was on location during the investigation of Moley’s scrap yard.

Pohlmann openly expressed that many of the scrap yards in the area are legitimately operating businesses, which all have a record of cooperation with the St. Bernard Sheriffs Office.

“The Sheriff’s Office enjoys good relations with a scrap yard operator in Chalmette who follows the law and keeps records of who sells them items and pictures of what was bought,” Pohlmann said. “That’s the only acceptable situation.”

Following his arrest Moley was released on $8,000 bond, but sheriff’s detectives, commanded by Chief of Detectives Col. John Doran, obtained an arrest warrant on a second charge—possession of stolen property.

“Moley is expected to surrender on the new count,” Pohlmann said.

Story by William Dilella, Photo by Steve Cannizaro