SF towing company operator torched competition's trucks to ‘get retaliation', DOJ says
(KRON) — The operator of a San Francisco towing company plotted to burn competitors' tow trucks across the Bay Area to drive more customers to his and his co-conspirators' businesses, according to a federal indictment. The plan was intended to hurt the competition and 'get retaliation for perceived wrongs,' according to the Northern District of California Department of Justice.
It appears the 29-year-old San Francisco defendant also has a history of devising elaborate insurance schemes.
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The DOJ said Jose Vicente Badillo was indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit arson. Authorities said Badillo was associated with both 'Auto Towing' and 'Specialty Towing,' two Bay Area-based towing companies, when the fires took place.
According to the DOJ, the four incidents occurred between April 2023 and October 2023, in which Badillo and his alleged accomplices set 'at least six tow trucks' ablaze. The timeline of damage and destruction is detailed as follows:
Two tow trucks in San Francisco on April 4, 2023
One tow truck in San Francisco on April 29, 2023
One tow truck in East Palo Alto on July 25, 2023
Two tow trucks in San Francisco on Oct. 3, 2023
The DOJ said the prosecution is part of an investigation led by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces. Badillo faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. He is due back in court on March 20.
The DOJ said Badillo is also facing federal charges of money laundering and insurance fraud in a few other unrelated and pending cases.
According to an indictment returned by a federal grand jury on July 9, 2024, Badillo and another defendant, Jessica Elizabeth Najarro, 30, of San Francisco, conspired to defraud an insurance company. Authorities said Badillo bought a damaged car in June 2019 and Navarro lied to an insurance company in another state that the vehicle had been involved in a single-car accident. Badillo would deposit a reimbursement check of $34,037.48 into his Wells Fargo account days after it was received, said authorities.
Another indictment by a federal grand jury on August 20, 2024, said Badillo has a pattern of using the car scheme. The DOJ said Badillo, and two other defendants submitted a fake insurance claim after buying a car in May 2019 that was already 'undrivable with significant front-end damage' then lied that it had been involved in a single-car accident. Badillo also allegedly staged an accident in which he 'loaded a vehicle carrier with four vehicles (several of which were inoperable or had pre-existing damage) and purposefully drove them off the road on Guadalupe Canyon Parkway in San Mateo County in August 2019.' Badillo reported the crash as an 'accident' to his insurance company, said authorities.
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