Inside two alleged luxury auto theft rings in North Texas: Suspects, Stolen Cars, Unprosecuted Leads
Stephen Howell has a hard act to follow. His father, Dave Howell, worked at the Plano Police Department for 44 years and was the founding detective for the department's auto theft division.
His son, Stephen, is now the detective chasing down suspected car thieves.
"Yeah, well, he would say that," Howell said.
Stephen Howell is just as busy as his father, if not busier, especially with luxury car and truck rings making their way to his desk. In June, a man had his Rolls-Royce Spectre stolen in the Legacy West area.
A search warrant obtained by CBS News Texas reveals the suspects took advantage of an unmanned valet stand. Investigators said the alleged thieves grabbed the keys and drove away. The car would not raise attention in an area where luxury vehicles are standard.
Even the getaway vehicles investigators connected to the crime—a white 2025 Mercedes S63 AMG—only caught the attention of a multi-agency law enforcement group, including the FBI.
The arrest document said the FBI was able to trace the vehicle back to an Instagram account connected to fugitive Oscar Ivan Valdez Garcia.
Several Texas law enforcement jurisdictions wanted Garcia to face felony warrants for crimes including aggravated assault, burglary, vehicle theft, and robbery.
The Plano Police Department said Garcia, Salvador Hernandez, and Miguel Angel Hernandez were arrested on charges of theft of property over $300,000, a first-degree felony.
The three were apprehended after investigators executed search warrants at two houses in Dallas: 8315 and 8447 Alto Garden Drive. Officers said among the vehicles recovered were a Rolls-Royce Spectre, Rolls-Royce Cullinan, Cadillac Escalade-V, Maserati Levante, and an Audi RS7. Officers estimated the value at $1.5 million.
Investigators said in the documents that they had been conducting surveillance on the homes and monitoring social media activity. Police said Garcia's account contained photos, videos, and messages showing high-end vehicles (including a white Mercedes-Benz S63 and a Rolls-Royce Spectre), firearms, body armor, large amounts of U.S. currency, conversations about drug trafficking and vehicle sales, and attempts to get a social media site to remove a fugitive post.
"They're taking the vehicles via what's called the key programmer," Howell said. "It's used to trick the vehicle into thinking that the programmer is a key for the vehicle, which allows them to manipulate the push start and start the vehicle with the push start."
The search document also reveals that the houses were being rented to the suspects by a family Howell is familiar with. Jacob Ruiz is a suspect in a 2023 stolen truck case. The detective is still waiting to see the case through the legal system.
"Everybody knows one another. In this case, the individuals from the first case were leasing out the locations to the individuals from the second case," Howell said.
According to the detective, Ruiz, David Villegas, Jesus Daniel Perez Rodriguez, and Stive Montes Miguel were working in concert in alleged schemes to steal trucks—lots of them.
"The total value of the 49 vehicles was roughly $2.5 million," Howell said."The stealers would roughly get about five thousand dollars a car. The sellers would sell it for about 30-ish per truck."
Howell said part of the group would execute the thefts. Miguel, he said, was responsible for moving the stolen merchandise. The trucks, like the vehicles from 2025, get fake titles and VINs, according to the detective. Then, he said, unsuspecting customers would buy them only to find out the hard truth at the Texas DPS.
"I can tell you without a doubt that there are more victims and there are other vehicles that were at those residences that were not there on the day that we executed the search warrants," Howell said.
Torres is the only one out of the group serving time for the 2023 case. The rest are awaiting adjudication or face new allegations.
Investigators have not proven that the two cases are related beyond the location where officers allegedly found stolen vehicles, and four suspects with auto theft charges in two separate cases.
In any of the cases, some victims learn of the recovery.
"I will tell you that most people don't want their car back after someone else has been in it," Howell said. "They feel victimized, and they feel as if the fact that the suspect got into that vehicle has traumatized them so that they don't want the vehicle back."
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