A Denver grand jury indicted 11 people in connection with an auto theft ring that stole more than $3 million in vehicles and other property across the metro.

Prosecutors said the defendants stole guns, trailers and at least 130 vehicles. They are also accused of stealing identities to finance their methamphetamine, heroin and fentanyl addictions, according to the Denver District Attorney’s Office. 

The jury indicted the defendants on 74 charges, including first-degree assault, first-degree motor vehicle theft, cybercrimes, identity theft and vehicular assault. 

The defendants include: 

• Esequiel Gomez, 33
• Sergio Casimiro-Mejia, 24
• Susana Garcia, 23
• Olivia Talamantes, 29
• Jonathan Valdivia III, 19
• Fabian Varela-Castillo, 28
• Jonathan Baeza Delgado, 29
• Karina Carbajal, 25
• Dianna Laura Gaucin, 19
• Felix Lopez, 34 
• Debbie Rachel Valdivia, 22

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Prosecutors said the crime ring operated from Feb. 4, 2021, to May 11 and that the defendants used social media platforms such as Facebook to communicate with each other and to coordinate their activities, sales and even evade capture. 

Law enforcement officials named their investigation “Program” because the defendants used electronic key programmers to override authorized key fobs, allowing them to use after-market key fobs to steal vehicles, prosecutors said.

Stolen vehicles were stored at several of the defendants’ homes and at “The Ranch” in unincorporated Adams County, according to the indictment. 

The defendants are also accused of conducting counter surveillance and if confronted, they would ram vehicles, drive over obstacles, flee at a high rate of speed and enter oncoming lanes of traffic to evade authorities, prosecutors said.

The Colorado Metropolitan Auto Theft Task Force was involved in the investigation. 

A rise in motor vehicle thefts since 2019 has law enforcement agencies concerned. The task force, which covers Denver, Adams, Broomfield, Douglas, Arapahoe and Jefferson counties, reported a 24% increase in auto thefts across the metro area in the first quarter of 2022 compared with the same period last year. 

Metro-wide, the first quarter of 2022 saw 283 auto thefts per 100,000 people. Lakewood police Cmdr. Mike Greenwell, who oversees the task force (known as C-MATT), said the investigative resources of law enforcement agencies are struggling to keep up with the rising numbers.

Police are concerned that sentences and pretrial conditions for people accused of motor vehicle theft are too lenient and don’t do enough to deter them. But they and criminologists also say factors that tend to drive crime such as economic desperation and substance addiction have also contributed to the rise in auto thefts.

Several of the defendants were arrested during the 15-month crime wave, but were bailed out and resumed committing crimes, according to the affidavit.

“Members continued to commit crimes to support themselves and each other, even when one or more members were caught and briefly jailed,” the indictment reads. “After being bonded from jail, the bonded members immediately began committing more crimes to support themselves and other members.”

Denver Gazette reporter Julia Cardi contributed to this report.