California Department of Justice agents arrested an Arizona woman suspected of smuggling empty beverage containers into California in an attempt to defraud the state's CRV fund.

The woman , Mary Simpson , was arrested on August 15, 2018 in Winterhaven ,California. Agents seized 907 pounds of empty aluminum beverage containers with an estimated CRV value of $1,451. Agents said that this was in addition to materials that had been brought in previously. According to the complaint , Simpson imported approximately 468,000 pounds of aluminum worth an estimated $748,000 in CRV into California over the past three years. 

California beverage container recycling program , administered by the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery ( CalRecycle ), encourages recycling through a 5 to 10-cent deposit on CRV-eligible beverages containers. Consumers can redeem their containers at privately-owned recycling centers certified by CalRecycle. The recycling centers are responsible for ensuring that only eligible bottles and cans are sold in California , where the CRV deposit was paid. Other suspects were arrested following investigations in Barstow and Needles in San Bernardino County.