Artificial intelligence led feds to suspects in $12 million “brazen” Denver jewel heist

By CNN Newsource

Published February 27, 2025 10:42 AM

By Brian Maass

DENVER, Colorado (KCNC) — A surveillance photo released Wednesday to CBS News Colorado shows three of the men walking into the Cherry Creek Shopping Center on July 21. Each is wearing, gloves, a fluorescent vest, one has on a construction hard hat. One is carrying what appears to be a tool box and all three appear to be wearing masks.

Authorities believe the men were trying to masquerade as a construction crew. Investigators say they cut through a wall to get into the jewelry store, then used torches and drills to break into safes and steal $12 million in jewelry and high end watches.

Investigators say the crew was inside the jewelry store for an estimated eight hours without being detected.

Other photos released Wednesday to CBS News Colorado show a dark colored Ford F-150 pickup truck the men used in the heist, according to the FBI. License plates had been removed from the truck in an apparent attempt to avoid detection.

But shortly after the heist, investigators fed information about the truck into a database belonging to Flock systems, the company that has installed license plate reader cameras in Colorado and across the country. As it turns out, the system does more than help track vehicles through their license plates.

“It’s essentially machine learning technology, a kind of artificial intelligence,” said Holly Beilin, a spokesperson for Flock Safety. By inputting the type of vehicle, body style, color and a number of other characteristics of the truck into the Flock system, it told investigators that the precise truck had been seen by another camera on Interstate 70 in Glenwood Springs, headed toward Denver, before the heist. At that time, the truck displayed California license plates.

“It works quite well,” said Beilin. “The algorithm is constantly sort of learning, It’s very accurate,” said the company spokesperson. “This is a case of how AI and technology are augmenting humans.”

Investigators then obtained search warrants for a cellphone tower at the shopping center. They sought information on cellphones that were active at the mall during the heist. That high tech search then led them to a cellphone belonging to one of the suspected thieves, Gustavo Salas-Ortega, 33, who is originally from Chile, and was in the U.S. without legal authorization according to Michalek.

Further investigation of cellphone towers showed Salas-Ortega’s phone had traveled the same route along I-70 as the Ford F-150. Chris Gray, a crime analyst with the Denver District Attorney’s Office, said of the Hyde Park investigation: “The digital side has become a massive component in everything we do.”

Gray said 70% to 80% of modern criminal investigations have a digital component. Although he was not involved in the Hyde Park investigation, Gray said “That investigation really was letting the data drive the investigation and assist investigators in making those identifications.”

Salas-Ortega was subsequently arrested in New Jersey and is being held on immigration violations and criminal charges. Denver prosecutors have charged him with theft over $1 million and burglary.

Michalek said Salas-Ortega and the other men involved in the Hyde Park case are believed to be part of a South American theft group, which had been active across the country.

“We have connected these suspects to additional thefts and burglaries,” said Michalek.

The Salas-Ortega group is believed to have been involved in a 2024 jewelry store heist in New Jersey.

“Virtually every case has a digital element,” said Michalek. “We were able to pull that thread and put those pieces together to make a prosecutable case,” he said.

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