Teenage jewel thieves busted

Fifteen teenage jewelry thieves were arrested in a sting operation in a Jackson Heights jewelry store, and the police are hunting for three more individuals.
The young men, the majority of whom were between 16 and 19 years old, allegedly sold hundreds of items stolen during home invasions to the jewelry store, which was being run by undercover police officers.
More than $100,000 in stolen property was recovered in the sting organized by the Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly. Items allegedly stolen included gold bracelets, earrings, rings, watches, pendants and necklaces.
Beginning in December 2005, the NYPD’s Patrol Borough Queens North (PBQN) Anti-Crime Unit set up shop in the Jackson Heights jewelry store, where they investigated the men who sold jewelry for a fraction of its worth.
According to the DA’s office, defendant Rodrigo Rubio, 16, tried to sell 100 pieces of jewelry to undercover police officers in the store on February 16. A review of burglary reports determined that the items had been reported stolen on February 13, 2006 during an apartment break-in at 34-21 77th Street.
A week later, defendants Tatiana Pineda, 16, and Julio Villareal, 17, sold 16 pieces of gold jewelry to undercover cops in the store for $430. Police discovered after the sale that the items had been reported stolen the day before during two separate apartment break-ins at 41-26 73rd Street.
Throughout the three-month investigation, police officers also alerted the undercover officers at the jewelry stores about stolen jewelry, allowing some of the items to be returned before the owners even noticed they were missing.
“The arrests of the defendants are the result of hundreds of hours of investigation and surveillance over a four-month period,” Brown said.
The defendants are being held pending arraignment in Queens Criminal Court in Kew Gardens on a variety of charges.
“‘Operation Goldmine,’ as this case was called, is another example of the talent and ingenuity of our police officers, in their capacity as both convincing role players and skilled technicians,” Kelly said.