Two arrested at Northwoods Mall accused of stealing cooking oil from tank

North Charleston Police conducted a traffic stop around 1:45 a.m. Monday after mall security reported two men in a white work van siphoning cooking oil from a tank at Northwoods Mall. Officers found the van and occupants covered in grease and smelling of oil; surveillance allegedly shows them using a cutting wheel to break into the tank. The suspects, identified as 26-year-old Gadiel Gonzales Rodriguez of San Juan and 35-year-old Javier Ivan Gonzales Espinal of Reading, admitted to siphoning oil for about two weeks, said they were paid roughly $3 per gallon and had made about $5,000, and were charged with Breaking into Tanks and taken to the Al Cannon Detention Center.