SUSPECTED RECYCLING SCAM PUTS TWO IN JAIL; MEN SAID TO HAVE TAKEN IN $750,000.

Byline: Anne Burke Daily News Staff Writer

Out-of-state aluminum cans redeemed in California turned into a gold mine for a pair of suspected crooks, authorities said Wednesday.

Prosecutors claim that Mario Solo, 55, and Raul Fernandez, 57, made as much as $750,000 buying cans by the truckload in Arizona - where aluminum has no redemption value - and reselling them in California, where they're worth about 60 cents a pound more with the redemption value.

Officials said the pair loaded cans into rented cargo trucks and smuggled them into California at the rate of 30,000 to 40,000 pounds a week.

``There's a substantial amount of money to be made in this,'' said prosecutor Edward Nison of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office's environmental crimes division.

The case is one of the biggest involving recycling scams in California, said Jeanne Winnick of the California Department of Conservation, which is leading the investigation.

Fernandez was arrested and jailed Tuesday in Las Vegas, Nev. Los Angeles authorities hope to extradite him to face charges, Nison said.

Solo, of Fullerton, was arrested in Southern California. He was in county jail Wednesday on $20,000 bail.

Each faces one count of attempted grand theft and conspiracy to commit grand theft. The case remains under investigation, and more charges could be filed, Winnick and Nison said.

It's illegal to sell aluminum cans purchased in another state in California, but law enforcement doesn't go after individuals who do so inadvertently, Nison said.

He said the men bought the cans for between 60 and 65 cents a pound from recycling centers in Bullhead City and Kingman, Ariz. The payment reflected the cans' scrap-metal value only.

The centers took in huge amounts of soda and beer cans from gambling casinos in nearby Laughlin, Nev., Nison said. Solo and Fernandez ``were basically purchasing their entire inventory on a continual basis,'' he added.

Once or twice a week, they drove the shipments into California and sold them to recycling centers in Fullerton, Gardena and Carson, Nison said.

Those centers paid about $1.20 a pound for the cans - 60 cents of which came from the California redemption value and the remainder for scrap-metal value.

Nison said Solo and Fernandez had been carrying out the scam since 1995, but the volume of cans increased in the past year.

Warrants were served Tuesday at the Southern California recycling centers, but no arrests were made.

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BOX: Can Scam