Westminster police speak following Colorado organized retail crime spree that led to pawn shop arrests
A pawn shop in Arapahoe County has become the center of a two-year long investigation of an organized retail store theft operation that took place across the Denver metro area.
"We recovered several hundred items. Some of them we've tied directly to thefts. Some of them are believed to be from thefts that we're still investigating," said Jason Cirbo, a detective with the Westminster Police Department.
Earlier this week, Westminster police released the names of eight people with direct ties to the Aurora Gold Pawn on Mississippi Avenue who were issued arrest warrants. So far, three of the suspects are in custody.
"A conservative estimate is about $2 million worth of items taken from retailers in the Denver metro area alone," Cirbo said. "We had King Soopers, Home Depot, Lowe's, Petco, Safeway ... Sprouts Market, Whole Foods, Walgreens, and Target."
Cirbo says this operation even crossed state lines.
"Some shoplifters are traveling to Iowa and Nevada and coming back with stolen property that they were taking to the pawn shop," Cirbo said.
Police say they used digital evidence, GPS trackers and even monitored thefts in real time to link the thefts back to the pawn shop.
"Some of the crimes were happening in real time that we allowed because we needed to find out if they were actually being taken to the pawn shop," said Cirbo. "We did have the retailers' permission to do that with the property."
This is not the first time some of these suspects have been involved in organized retail theft.
CBS Colorado learned three of the men (pictured above) were indicted for shoplifting and money laundering in Douglas County in 2019. Each pleaded guilty in 2023 and received 4 years of probation.
"The only thing I can say is that I was aware of that investigation," said Cirbo.
As police continue to work on apprehending the remaining five suspects on their list (pictured above), they're hoping to add roughly a dozen more who were involved in shoplifting for this operation.
"It feels good to get a resolution," Cirbo said. "There's still a long road ahead of us, but I feel like we've helped the community at large and the retailers by taking down this fence."
