Brea, Anaheim Arrests Made in Major Theft Ring

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies arrested three people in Brea and Anaheim Friday and recovered $105,000 in stolen computers and Warner Bros. clothing during raids at three locations, officials said.

Investigators from the Norwalk sheriff’s station also recovered bulletproof vests, three handguns and assault rifles, one of them loaded under the desk of a suspect who claims to be a right-wing extremist with anti-government views, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. John DeMooy.

That suspect, Steven Hallsted, 30, of Brea, was taken into custody at Global Pacific Technology, a business in the 1200 block of Ball Road in Anaheim. Hallsted also goes by four additional names, DeMooy said.

Sam So Shen, 25, and her boyfriend, Dennis Shin, 28, both of Brea, also were arrested at the business.

Deputies serving a warrant there recovered $100,000 in computer printers, servers and monitors stolen from businesses and warehouses in the Los Angeles Basin and Arizona, DeMooy said.

Deputies served warrants on two Brea apartments and also recovered about $5,000 in Warner Bros. clothing stolen from a La Mirada warehouse.

The raids culminated an investigation that began Feb. 2 when a Norwalk deputy arrested an ex-convict in a stolen van containing pipe-bombs, mercury switches and detonating devices, DeMooy said. The discovery temporarily closed the San Diego Freeway. A subsequent investigation of the suspect, 35-year-old Eddie Drafken of Portside, Ariz., led to $12,000 in stolen Warner Bros. clothing in Whittier on Feb. 8 and to Friday’s warrants, DeMooy said.