Help! - Law Enforcement Issues

Time period: 1980-1995

Premise: A pawn shop owner has devised what he thinks is an unbeatable system for raking in tens of thousands of dollars a year illegally in a way that is unlikely to be discovered:

1. A truly legal and profitable pawn shop- no fencing of items stolen by others
2. Cooperation with local police in 'sting' operations to catch local thieves and burglars
3. His own built-in master burglar + apprentice to steal select, small high-value items (jewelry, coins, small valuable collectibles)
• Not allowed to carry guns or other weapons that might get used in the heat of the moment
• No 'big spending' by boss or subordinates of the illegal gains
4. Only targeting homes and businesses where he has enough info to guarantee they can get in and out quickly without alerting the owner or the authorities
5. Not hitting the same Texas county more than once every 24 months (in theory, 400+ counties to choose from)
6. Stolen items are kept in a hidden location in the pawn shop building where they are not likely to be discovered
7. Items are fenced in Japan through former military compatriot who married into a Japanese family owning an import/export business
• no local sales
• Japanese family believes the items to be legally acquired (false paperwork provided)

Questions:
Looking only at these factors, how well thought out is their scheme?

• Were Texas state, county and local criminal activity databases sufficient, accurate and consistently used enough to pick up patterns of criminal activity and to alert authorities?
• National databases?
• Were police trained to look for such patterns utilizing whatever data sources were available?
• Apart from the FBI and the IRS, how are these crooks most likely to trip themselves up and get caught?