ST. GEORGE — A man allegedly associated with a South American Theft Group and being held in Washington County for a string of theft crimes now faces a fugitive warrant.
On Tuesday, the Washington County Attorney’s Office filed a fugitive complaint against 37-year-old Jairo Gavida-Monroy, a Columbian National, after authorities were notified Monroy was wanted on a no-bail warrant issued by the Milwaukee Circuit Court in Wisconsin in July. The case involves two felony charges: unauthorized use of another’s identifying information or documents to obtain something of value and obstructing an officer.
Monroy is currently in jail at the Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility following a monthslong investigation that started in May by the St. George Police Department after two wallets were reported stolen while customers were shopping.
The first incident was reported at a home improvement store on River Road in St. George when a wallet was reportedly stolen from a shopper’s purse, which had been sitting in a shopping cart. Within minutes of the theft, the victim’s bank cards were used to charge more than $3,200 at retail stores in St. George, according to a police report.
About an hour later, a second victim’s wallet was stolen from her purse while she shopped at a grocery store on Bluff Street. Authorities say six fraudulent transactions were made using the second victim’s bank and credit cards, resulting in a loss of more than $6,250.
The cards taken from both victims were used at the big-box retailer on Pioneer Road in quick succession, the report alleges.
Police say the same three Hispanic males, including Monroy, were involved in each incident. Following these incidents, St. George detectives issued a bulletin to surrounding agencies and Homeland Security Investigation agents, who later provided a photo of a suspect who matched one of the individuals seen inside the stores and identified as Monroy.
In the days and weeks after the bulletin was released, detectives from law enforcement agencies across the country started reporting similar cases involving the same suspects, including two county agencies in Southern California, multiple departments in Wisconsin, and detectives in Illinois and Nebraska.
One such case was filed in Milwaukee County after Monroy and two other suspects, Juan Villanueva-Rodriguez and Andres Villanueva-Rodriguez, were arrested by the Greenfield Police Department in connection with an ongoing investigation involving distraction crimes similar to the ones reported in St. George, according to the warrant issued out of Milwaukee Circuit Court in 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 to make a $720 purchase at a drug store near Milwaukee, which is when she noticed her wallet was missing from her purse. The reporting party told officers she declined the transaction and canceled the card.
While reviewing her bank account, she reportedly realized the card was used to make a second purchase of more than $700 at a different retailer, in addition to another $520 transaction that went through at another store that 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 the amount of time the complainant was shopping before she noticed her wallet was missing, the report states.
The same held true for both victims in St. George, who had thousands charged to their cards within an hour or so of their wallets being stolen.
When officers followed up with one of the stores in Milwaukee, they learned the suspect used three cards from the victim, two of which were declined, while the third card was successful. The manager also said that from June 10-13, the suspects reportedly purchased another $1,500 in Vanilla Visa gift cards using different 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 Homeland Security Investigations agent and a facial recognition database. Monroy reportedly told officers he was from Columbia and later admitted that his Mexican documents were fake. A registration check indicated that Monroy was living in Santa Ana, California.
While searching the suspects’ motel room, officers found clothing items matching what the suspects were wearing, as seen on the retailer’s security footage. Officers also recovered two identification cards belonging to two individuals: one from New Berlin, Wisconsin, and the other from Florida.
The complaint attached to the warrant was filed in Milwaukee County by Assistant District Attorney Nathaniel McClure, and the suspects were charged following their arrests. The trio was booked into the Milwaukie County Jail, where two of them remain. Monroy was returned to Utah to face the charges in Washington County. The no-bail warrant was issued out of Wisconsin following further investigation into the crimes committed there.
This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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