(FOX40.COM) — The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office busted an alleged burglary group with ties to an international crime ring from Colombia in Lodi on Thursday after a month-long investigation.
Spokesman for SCSO Amar Gandhi said the investigation began on Sept. 13 following a burglary at a jewelry store in Sacramento.
According to Gandhi, the methods used in the burglary were “straight out of the movies,” as the group disabled alarm systems and drilled holes in walls. In the Sacramento heist, the suspects left with over $1 million worth of merchandise.
Detectives identified the four individuals who are a part of the group as three men and four women from Colombia.
SCSO said that the suspects were under surveillance for about a week and were found to be residing in a trailer park in Lodi.
On Thursday, law enforcement was conducting surveillance in Lodi near the trailer park when they found that a crime was in progress at a jewelry store on West Lodi Avenue.
“They again, break into that adjoining business, work on it, drill a hole, make an entryway into the jewelry store that way, so they can go virtually undetected, working throughout the night,” Gandhi said.
While the suspects were breaking into the pawn shop, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s SWAT team intervened. Surveillance video was exclusively obtained by FOX40 from a local smog shop down the street.
The video showed a person in a sweater with a hoodie walking from a van near the pawn shop before the SWAT team could be seen approaching and breaking the van’s window.
Gandhi originally reported the incident as an execution of a search warrant, but later clarified it to be a crime in progress.
“It was scary. You know, I got up, in my flip flops, came in, and I just see swat and I see officers everywhere,” Owner of the pawn shop, Manpreet Ghuane, said it could have been much worse.
“We’re blessed,”Ghuane said. “You know, nothing happened, nobody was killed or nobody was shot. You know, nothing was taken and bad guys are off the street.”
The Lodi pawn shop owner tells FOX40 they will continue to be open for business, adding the group jammed their alarm system, which prevented the system from alerting him or even capturing the burglary.
He’s now working on strengthening his alarm system, including adding more light in the area.
Officials said no valuable merchandise was taken at this pawn shop; however, this incident is a much different outcome from a previous jewelry heist in Sacramento back on Sept. 13.
According to SCSO, the tactics the suspects were using at the Lodi jewelry store were the same strategy the group used at the jewelry store in Sacramento.
“From that particular heist in Sacramento, they made it with over a million dollars worth of merchandise. So pretty significant heist there. So detectives obviously jumped on that really quickly,” Gandhi said.
Deputies responded and arrested the woman, who was in an RV and one of the male suspects.
Gandhi said that the two other suspects were inside the store, and one surrendered on his own, while the other attempted to hide. The last suspect eventually surrendered as well.
The Lodi Police Department had closed down multiple streets during the incident, which have since reopened.
According to Gandhi, it is believed that the group has ties to a jewelry store in Colombia, as well as cartels. The sheriff’s office said the group could be connected to several other heists throughout the state.
“We know one of the members the Colombia National owns a jewelry store in Colombia. We believe that there are ties to cartels down there as well with that jewelry store,” Gandhi said.
One of the suspects is believed to be an alarm specialist, and another is believed to be experienced in demolition and construction. SCSO described the woman as the “office manager” of the group and explained that “these guys are very sophisticated at what they do.”
