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Authorities say a homeless gentleman on a courtroom-ordered GPS keep an eye on stole hundreds of countless numbers of dollars in jewellery from Santa Fe corporations around the earlier quite a few months to feed a purported fentanyl practice.
Edgar Guzman, who lived beneath a bridge in close proximity to downtown Santa Fe, explained to law enforcement he offered the jewelry – at minimum a single piece well worth up to $35,000 – to travelers for among $20 and $100 every single.
Authorities say businesses are now “trying to compete with their individual product” thanks to the 26-year-outdated reselling the goods all over town at a “considerably decrease price.”
“The net effect of these crimes can be devastating to the house owners of these enterprises and the city’s economy,” a Santa Fe Police Department detective wrote in court docket data.
Santa Fe Police Capt. Aaron Ortiz mentioned in the two biggest hauls – two burglaries at the Manitou Galleries – Guzman stole hundreds of jewelry pieces worth $250,000. He said none of the jewelry has been recovered.
“We’re following up with pawn shops to consider and get better some,” Ortiz explained, calling Guzman’s arrest a “step in the right direction” of curbing burglaries around the cash metropolis.
Police used the GPS from Guzman’s ankle watch to location him at the scene of numerous burglaries and attempted break-ins.
He is now jailed at the Santa Fe County Adult Detention Middle, charged with two counts every single of getting stolen home over $20,000, larceny about $20,000, 4 counts of non-household theft and lesser rates. It is unclear if he has an attorney.
Court docket documents clearly show Guzman picked up his initial serious fees in 2019 and 2020, when he allegedly threatened juveniles with a knife and, in a different circumstance, threatened a person with a knife just after shoplifting. Both cases ended up dismissed due to prosecutors not assembly deadlines or filing discovery.
In January, he was sentenced to neighborhood company and a yr of probation in a November 2021 scenario in which he was caught with fentanyl tablets. At the time, Guzman experienced by now been positioned on an ankle check by the courtroom immediately after law enforcement say they caught him with $230,000 in jewellery, cash and cash adhering to back again-to-again burglaries from Momeni’s Gallery at 222 Aged Santa Fe Path.
In all, authorities say Guzman was arrested 3 situations in excess of the past four months for crimes connected to theft and home theft.
“I feel Mr. Guzman is a threat to the non-public business homeowners of the Town of Santa Fe,” the detective on the scenario wrote in a statement of possible cause filed in Santa Fe Magistrate Courtroom.
In the largest heists, on Feb. 15 and March 4, Guzman allegedly broke into the same Manitou Galleries locale on Palace Avenue, a several blocks from the Santa Fe Plaza, in accordance to police.
Each burglaries transpired just right before 5 a.m. and took minutes as Guzman allegedly pried his way into the setting up and crammed a backpack with hundreds of jewellery parts, like an 18-karat white gold and sapphire diamond ring worthy of $35,000.
Guzman was arrested April 10 soon after he tried to drill by the lock of a company and law enforcement explained he experienced a backpack matching the just one viewed in surveillance footage from the gallery. Guzman, who had been in and out of jail among the gallery burglaries, told the arresting officers he was hoping to get revenue for a fentanyl habit.
Court docket documents demonstrate a detective achieved with Guzman, who reported he experienced been homeless for a calendar year and dwelling less than a bridge a quarter-mile from the gallery. He mentioned there was “no chance” of returning the jewellery as he had offered it on the streets to travellers.
Police reported he told them he burglarized the gallery twice “because it was simple.”
Guzman’s ankle keep track of placed him at the scene of the Feb. 15 gallery theft and yet another two burglaries, in which he stole a harmless and funds registers.
In a person of these cases, on Feb. 24, an officer adopted bicycle tracks in the fresh snow from the business by means of Santa Fe to Guzman’s tent close to the bridge at Sandoval and DeVargas avenue.
Guzman’s GPS locale for the second gallery theft could not be verified since his ankle check experienced been removed on March 1 thanks to the prior circumstance remaining dismissed to be “refiled later,” in accordance to courtroom documents.