Federal agents have arrested eight men in connection with the theft of $300,000 in Nike shoes from a cargo train in Arizona.

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The arrests followed the crew of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter recording six individuals unloading 23 crates from a BNSF Railway boxcar.

The rail tracks between Needles, California, and communities north of Phoenix have become a target for a transnational criminal organization based in Sinaloa, Mexico.

Thieves use metal saws and bolt cutters to extract merchandise from trains traveling up to 70 miles per hour and pass it along to associates in vehicles running parallel to the train.

The suspects were apprehended after unloading 1,800 pairs of Air Jordan “Son of Mars Low” shoes from a rail car and stashing them for later pickup in a drainage pipe near the tracks.

The suspects have been charged with possession of stolen goods from interstate shipment, with detention hearings set for March 10 in a federal courtroom in Phoenix.

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