For those who have been questioning why what these folks did is criminal, the answer is in the statement from the California Attorney General:
The California Beverage Container Recycling Program is administered by CalRecycle. The program’s California Redemption Value (CRV) fee incentivizes recycling at privately-owned centers with a 5- or 10-cent return on eligible beverage containers. California consumers subsidize the CRV program every time they purchase CRV-eligible bottles and cans in the state.
Only material from California is eligible for redemption under this program.
In October 2022, the California Department of Justice (DOJ) launched an investigation into a group of recycling centers in Riverside County operated by the suspects. The investigation found that over the course of eight months, the suspects smuggled 178 tons of aluminum cans and plastic bottles from Arizona and delivered them to undocumented lots in Riverside County. The suspects then unlawfully redeemed $7.6 million in CRV funds. Arizona does not have a recycling program that provides redemption value for bottles and cans.
If the “criminals” would have pumped a mil or so into Gruesome Newsome’s campaign fund, they would have skated.