Thieves have targeted freight trains running through the deserts of California and Arizona in a string of audacious heists resulting in the theft of more than $2 million worth of new Nike sneakers, including many that haven’t hit the retail market yet,

In one heist, they made off with 2,000 pairs of Nikes, including Air Jordan 4s that will not be released to the public until next month.

Last year, stolen pairs of the then-unreleased Air Jordan 11 "Legend Blue" worth more than $200,000 were recovered after allegedly being stolen from a train in California. That headline is just the tip of the iceberg of a heist syndicate targeting Nike sneakers,