Arrest warrant now out for man accused of stealing wallets from customers in St. George stores – St. George News

Stock Photo | Photo by Anna Gorbacheva/iStock/Getty Images Plus, St. George News

Saint George — An arrest warrant has now been issued for a man allegedly linked to a South American gang of thieves who is being held in Washington County on a series of theft charges.

On Tuesday, the Washington County District Attorney's Office filed a complaint against 37-year-old Jairo Gavida-Monroy, a Colombian national, after authorities were notified that Monroy was wanted on a no-bail warrant issued in July by the Milwaukee District Court in Wisconsin. The case involves two charges: unauthorized use of another person's identification or documents to obtain something of value and obstruction of an officer.

Monroy is currently incarcerated at the Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility. The investigation was launched by St. George police in May after reports of the theft of two wallets while shopping. This followed a months-long investigation.

The first incident was reported at a hardware store on River Road in St. George, when a customer's wallet was allegedly stolen from her purse, which was in a shopping cart. According to a police report, within minutes of the theft, the victim's bank cards were used to make over $3,200 in purchases at retail stores in St. George.

About an hour later, a second victim had her wallet stolen from her purse while shopping at a Bluff Street grocery store. Authorities believe the second victim's debit and credit cards were used in six fraudulent transactions, resulting in a loss of over $6,250.

The cards taken from the two victims were used in quick succession in the wholesale market on Pioneer Road, the report said.

According to police, each incident involved the same three Hispanic men, including Monroy. After these incidents, St. George detectives issued a report to surrounding agencies and Homeland Security investigators, who later provided a photograph of a suspect who matched one of the people seen in the stores and identified as Monroy.

In the days and weeks following the bulletin's release, detectives from law enforcement agencies across the country began reporting similar cases involving the same suspects, including two county agencies in Southern California, several departments in Wisconsin, and detectives in Illinois and Nebraska.

One such case was brought in Milwaukie County after Monroy and two other suspects, Juan Villanueva-Rodriguez and Andres Villanueva-Rodriguez, were arrested by Greenfield police in connection with an ongoing investigation into similar diversion offenses to those in St. George, according to the arrest warrant issued by the District Court in Milwaukie, Wisconsin.

The first incident was reported on June 13, when a woman shopping at a department store in Greenfield received a bank alert that someone was trying to use her credit card. wanted to make a $720 purchase at a drugstore near Milwaukee, when she noticed that her wallet was missing from her purse. The reporting person told officers that they declined the transaction and blocked the card.

Upon checking her bank account, she reportedly discovered that the card had been used for a second purchase of $700 at a different retailer, in addition to another transaction of $520 made at a different store the same day. More than $1,300 in unauthorized transactions were charged to the cards. All transactions were attempted or completed within two hours, which is exactly how long the plaintiff had been shopping before she noticed her wallet was missing, the report states.

The same was true of the two victims in St. George, whose credit cards were charged for thousands of dollars within about an hour of their wallets being stolen.

When officers inquired at one of the Milwaukie stores, they learned that the suspect had used three of the victim's cards, two of which were declined while the third card was successful. The manager also said that the suspects allegedly purchased an additional $1,500 in Vanilla Visa gift cards from June 10 to June 13 using various bank cards.

On June 25, officers responded to a Super 8 Motel in Greenfield and arrested Monroy, Juan Villanueva Rodriguez and Andres Villanueva Rodriguez. They also found the blue Honda CRV with California plates the men were traveling in, the same vehicle the suspects were driving in St. George.

Authorities say the men were accurately identified with the help of a Department of Homeland Security investigator and a facial recognition database. Monroy reportedly told officers he was from Colombia and later admitted his Mexican papers were fake. A registration check revealed that Monroy lived in Santa Ana, California.

While searching the suspects' motel room, officers found clothing items that matched the suspects' clothing, as seen on surveillance footage from the retailer. Officers also seized two identification cards from two individuals: one from New Berlin, Wisconsin, and the other from Florida.

The complaint attached to the warrant was filed in Milwaukie County by Assistant District Attorney Nathaniel McClure, and the suspects were charged following their arrest. The trio was booked into the Milwaukie County Jail, where two of them remain. Monroy was returned to Utah to face charges in Washington County. The no-bail warrant was issued in Wisconsin following further investigation into the crimes committed there.

This report is based on statements from court records, police or other law enforcement agencies and may not contain the full extent of the findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or until a trial judge determines otherwise.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2024, all rights reserved.