EPPD: Second hand dealer arrested in connection to Westside jewelry burglary
Police arrested a second hand dealer who allegedly received thousands of dollars in stolen jewelry.
Marco Antonio Grado, 52, was charged with Theft over $2,500, police said. He was arrested at Central de Plata y Oro, a store located at 817 South El Paso Street.
Detectives arrested Grado after their investigation into home burglary in West El Paso.
El Paso police arrested 21-year-old Joseph Ray Peña after he was allegedly seen on surveillance cameras burglarizing a West Side home. Police said Peña and the vehicle he was driving during the alleged burglary were identified through surveillance images captured at the home May 7, 2018.
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A police officer spotted a similar vehicle and pulled it over on the 8000 block of Mesa. Police say the passenger was the same male from the surveillance photos. Peña was charged with Burglary of a Habitation and booked into the El Paso County Detention Facility under a $30,000 bond.
Investigators then executed a search warrant at the Central de Plata y Oro store and allegedly recovered jewelry reported stolen during the burglary.
Police said Grado failed to record any of the required information for a legal second hand dealer transaction. The investigation allegedly revealed Grado had sold some of the stolen jewelry as precious metal to a refinery where it had already been melted, police said.
Grado was booked into the El Paso County Detention Facility under a $10,000 bond.
