Four thieves dressed up as construction workers and used drills, power saws and blowtorches to ransack a Cherry Creek jeweler last July, making off with more than $12 million in luxury watches and accessories.
Denver police now say they’ve identified one of the men — Gustavo Ignacio Salas-Ortega, 33, of Chile — whom federal prosecutors charged earlier this month in connection with a New Jersey jewelry store burglary.
Salas-Ortega is suspected of second-degree burglary and theft from Hyde Park Jewelers in the mall and faces additional federal charges of conspiracy to receive stolen property that had crossed state lines and receiving stolen property that had crossed state lines.
Police say Salas-Ortega was previously implicated in robbery, burglary and theft in Chile and Ecuador. He was identified after a monthslong investigation that involved the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as police in New Jersey and New York.
An employee of Hyde Park Jewelers said Friday that the store had no comment on the case.
On the night of July 21, 2024, Salas-Ortega and three others broke through the wall of a store next to the jeweler in the Cherry Creek Shopping Center, according to Salas-Ortega’s arrest affidavit.
Using power tools, the group pierced the store’s vault and other secure storage areas over several hours before fleeing with millions of dollars in loot.
An FBI agent later told police that the methods used by thieves were similar to those used in a pattern of burglaries targeting jewelry stores across the country.
Police used license-plate-detecting cameras to track the getaway vehicle across Colorado and observed it near a hardware store where a Hispanic man was observed stealing cans of black spray paint hours before the burglary. The group used black spray paint to cover surveillance camera lenses inside the store.
The FBI and Denver police also used cellphone data to track phone numbers associated with phones that had been located near the scene of the crime. After a phone was located in New Jersey, on Oct. 11, the FBI and local police told Denver police they were expecting its owner might try to burglarize a store in the New York or New Jersey areas.
On Oct. 13, federal agents tried to make contact with a suspicious rental vehicle at one of the shopping centers they suspected would be targeted. The vehicle sped away, and when it was returned to the rental agency the next day, burglary tools were found inside.
Law enforcement used cellphone data to track suspects to a New Jersey AirBnB, and ICE agents and New Jersey police eventually caught up with Salas-Ortega — who identified himself as a Peruvian immigrant, Sabino Alfredo Farfan Ortiz — and three other South American immigrants at a gas station on Oct. 14.
Denver police said the name Salas-Ortega provided was similar to the name associated with two phone numbers involved in the burglary of Hyde Park Jewelers. A Chilean man who was detained with Salas-Ortega also looked similar to a person seen on surveillance video near the store.
iCloud accounts associated with Salas-Ortega that police accessed contained images of jewelry that had been stolen, police said.
Salas-Ortega was found to have violated his immigration status Oct. 14 and he was arrested and transported to ICE’s Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility in New Jersey.
He was identified as a Chilean immigrant by federal prosecutors in a news release announcing the federal criminal charges earlier this month. Prosecutors said he was in custody as of Feb. 4.
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