Man Charged With Burglaries in Los Gatos, Peninsula

A parolee who had been busted in 2007 for a string of high-tech burglaries has been arrested and charged with 36 felonies related to similar crimes alleged to have been committed in several South Bay communities, including Los Gatos.

Andrew Madrid, 39, is facing 24 counts of commercial burglary, five counts of ID theft and six counts of theft or possession of stolen property, and a count of possessing methamphetamine.

He could face more than 29 years in jail and is being held on a $1 million bail, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office.

The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s high-tech crime task force (REACT) concluded after an investigation that the thefts netted computer components and customer profiles and caused several business networks to shut down.

The stolen items were estimated to be worth around $400,000; however, the financial losses caused by their thefts may total in the millions, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office said in a press release.

“Mr. Madrid is a professional criminal who didn’t get the message the last time he got caught,” prosecutor Tom Flattery said.

The REACT Task Force nabbed Madrid for a similar string of burglaries in 2007, including cases in which he hacked into corporate computers and stole data.

He was sentenced to prison in 2009 and released two years later. Madrid was still on parole for those crimes when he was arrested for committing the burglary that led to this investigation, prosecutors said in the release.

After being caught breaking into a Santa Clara high-tech office complex in April, the REACT Task Force began investigating Madrid for the much larger crime spree.

Investigator Hung LeDang determined that between August 2012 and April 2013 Madrid broke into more than three dozen commercial businesses ranging from Los Gatos to Redwood City.

"He specifically targeted some of the companies’ server rooms, pilfering computer components. Several companies’ networks shut down as a result of the thefts
bringing their ability to conduct business over the Internet to a halt," the release said.

"In some cases the equipment stolen contained personal identifying information and companies were required to notify each of their customers of the potential breach and offer them credit insurance. There is no evidence that any of the customers’ information was accessed by the defendant."

Madrid also searched the businesses for credit card and corporate account information during the burglaries, investigators said, identifying multiple employees whose credit card information was compromised almost immediately after the burglaries.

Madrid purchased several thousand dollars in motorcycle parts with the stolen credit cards and then installed the parts on his motorcycle, prosecutors allege.

A Yamaha motorcycle was located by REACT agents and determined to have been stolen in San Jose last year. Investigators recovered a significant percentage of the property taken in the burglaries, including almost all of the computer hardware containing personal identifying information. Also recovered was a stolen remote control car and $4,000 electric wheelchair that Madrid bought for his aunt, now deceased, with a stolen credit card.

Investigators believe Madrid is responsible for many other commercial burglaries in the Bay Area.

Anyone with information related to this string of burglaries is asked to call Agent LeDang at 408-282-2434.