AURORA | Denver prosecutors on Tuesday announced that five people have been indicted on more than 30 charges tied to a years-long string of car thefts across the metro area and eastern Colorado.
A grand jury in Denver has indicted 28-year-old Miriam Alvarez, 26-year-old Alan Lopez-Reyes, 32-year-old Pedro Marrufo-Garcia, 26-year-old Robert Mills and 31-year-old Uriel Ureno-Garcia on a slew of felony charges, including aggravated motor vehicle theft, smuggling contraband into the Denver jail and multiple counts related to drug possession, according to court documents.
Investigators believe the group stole more than 70 vehicles — mostly Ford and Chevrolet trucks — across Denver, Aurora and Washington and Yuma counties between February 2018 and last month.
The local thefts included a Ford F350 stolen from the 1300 block of Dallas Street in April 2019 and a GMC Sierra 3500 stolen from the parking lot of Aurora’s Radisson Hotel on Nov. 30 of last year. Investigators with a regional task force designed to curb vehicle theft also observed multiple members of the quintet driving various stolen cars through different pockets of Aurora.
The defendants would use credit cards and other valuables taken from the stolen trucks to buy heroin and methamphetamine, prosecutors have alleged. They also used the stolen cards to buy gift cards, clothes and food that they would then share among themselves.
The majority of the group has been arrested, though Ureno-Garcia remains at large, according to the Denver District Attorney’s Office. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.