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The Federal Jury this week indicted a San Francisco tow truck operator and charged a conspiracy to commit arson as part of a suspected conspiracy to drive more business into businesses by torching competitors’ trucks.
The indictment charges Jose Vicente Badiro, 29, and four co-conspirators, of causing fires to at least six towing trucks throughout the Bay Area four times between April and October 2023. Authorities ordered Badillo to be organized and others set up a fire to reprotect Rival for the false mistakes that were indicted.
The first case detailed in the indictment was on April 4, 2023, when the 2008 White Sterling Bullet 45 towing truck and the 2012 White Dodge Ram 4500 tow truck was torched. A few weeks later, the 2018 Peterbilt 579 “Heavy Towker” flares up in East Palo Alto, California.
The 2009 Ford F-550 tow truck was set on fire on July 25, 2023, followed by two tow trucks, including two Ford F-550s and a 2022 Dodge RAM 550 flatbed.
In 2024, the US Department of Justice accused the operator of a San Francisco towing company with insurance fraud.
(sf.gov)
Authorities did not detail how investigators linked the fire to Badillo or how suspicious conspirators were involved. At least one co-conspirator was a business associate at Badillo’s, and according to the indictment, he was affiliated with one or more towing companies, including specialized towing.
The indictment is the latest in several criminal investigations, centered around Badillo.
On August 9th, Badillo was charged with car insurance fraud. The FBI agent executed a search warrant in connection with the case, including one of his towing yards. In that case, 31-year-old Jessica Elizabeth Najaro was also charged.
The indictment of the large ju trial in that case transferred ownership to Najaro after accusing him of purchasing a “unreliable” car in July 2019 with “severe front-end damage.”
About two weeks later, the Federal University Ju Court again indicted Baddiro and three other people under a similar auto insurance system.
Badillo and Abigail Fuentes, who are involved with authorities and say they have children, were already facing multiple felony charges from a welfare fraud scheme allegedly filed by the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office in October 2023.
In that case, prosecutors accused Fuentes of improperly approving Badillo’s welfare application while being an employee of a human service agency in San Francisco. Prosecutors accused Fuentes of lying about their income and assets, saying they had not disclosed her relationship with Badillo.
At the time the application was submitted, investigators said the pair operated three towing companies (car towing, Jose towing, but specialized).
The incident led to a more scrutiny of the pair’s business practices by San Francisco authorities from Atty, San Francisco city last year. David Chiu later claimed that one of the couple’s companies was profiting from illegal towing.
Last February, Chiu moved from receiving contracts from the city to suspend the company, Auto Towing and its affiliates, including specialized towing. The company was under public scrutiny two months later when he sidelined one of the trucks trying to tow a woman’s car while driving in San Francisco.
Police are investigating why the tow truck was trying to investigate why it was inside a moving vehicle in San Francisco. However, city attorney David Chiu confirmed that “special towing” was known to their office for violating state law before the case. https://t.co/tetw8tx2ef pic.twitter.com/bjgf3kzjwb
– ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) April 12, 2024
“We went crazy and basically rolled the window and said, ‘Hey, what are you doing? You can’t do that,’ the driver was identified only with Joan, telling ABC 7 News in an interview. “He started backing up, his lever came down and basically he was backing down trying to latch into our car.”
Representatives for automatic towing and special towing did not immediately respond to calls or voicemails seeking comment.
Authorities say Badillo is scheduled to appear in district court on March 20th.
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