(The Center Square) – Ventura County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrests of two suspects, Francisco Casillas, 21, and a 16-year-old juvenile who cannot be named, for burglarizing restaurants and businesses for safes and cash. A third individual, suspected of burglary in May 2023, was also arrested.
LAPD SWAT, along with Thousand Oaks Investigators, Special Enforcement Unit and Directed Enforcement Unit, executed a search warrant at Casillas’ residence in Los Angeles on June 15. Evidence linking Casillas to the crimes was seized and he was taken into custody. Juan Arreguin-Hernandez, 22, was identified as the suspect in the May 2023 case and was also arrested for conspiracy to commit theft in Thousand Oaks.
Thousand Oaks restaurants were targeted by the Los Angeles criminals from January to March 2023. Casillas was booked for 7-counts of commercial burglary and was booked into a Pre-Trial Detention Facility with bail set for $200,000 for those offenses. Casillas also had bail of $20,000 for a robbery and theft at a retail outlet that occurred in Thousand Oaks in 2022 and an $80,000 bail amount for a probation violation and an out-of-county warrant issued for burglary.
Arreguin-Hernandez was booked at the Pre-Trial Detention Facility and his bail was set at $20,000.
El Segundo Police and Arizona Police, who were attached to an ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) task force, contacted the Thousand Oaks Investigators who were able to help them confirm that the juvenile suspect was involved in the El Segundo / multiple cities burglaries.
Arizona police were able to inform the investigative team that suspects in two gun store burglaries in Arizona were associated with the residential address of Francisco Casillas and that numerous guns were stolen in those incidents.
Just one week earlier, the juvenile was arrested by Los Angeles County deputies after the Ventura County Superior Court issued warrants for the arrests of both Casillas and the 16-year-old. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Transportation Unit picked up the juvenile and booked him into the Ventura County Juvenile Justice Center for 18 counts of commercial burglary, which included a January burglary in Thousand Oaks and two in Agoura Hills.
The juvenile was also a suspect in multiple commercial burglaries in El Segundo and the surrounding cities, one burglary in Thousand Oaks and seven in Agoura Hills and Calabasas.
Along with Casillas, the juvenile committed two burglaries in Thousand Oaks and five more between the cities of Simi Valley and Moorpark in March 2023.
The Thousand Oaks Career Criminals Unit led the investigations of the cases working closely with the Thousand Oaks Special Enforcement Unit, Simi Valley Police Investigators, Moorpark Police Investigators, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The Thousand Oaks Police Department Investigators and Special Enforcement Unit were able to identify and locate the suspects using law enforcement resources and other investigative techniques, which allowed them to make arrests this past week.
