Reggie Kyle

The Gadsden Police Department used the new Flock cameras around the city to help them make two arrests in a major organized retail theft ring.

Officers say the ring has racked up thousands of dollars in thefts here and across the east coast.

Sgt. Dusty Ford with the Gadsden Police Department says this arrest is bigger than just the two suspects who were caught.

The Gadsden Police Department apprehended two people in connection with a series of jewelry thefts that happened in Gadsden on June 19 and July 7. The two suspects are identified as a Romanian couple involved in a larger criminal enterprise.

Their names are Ionut Stelica and Larisa Sima. The two are linked to approximately $100,000 worth of organized retail theft across the United States, primarily involving gold and jewelry. Investigators say they used Flock cameras to help track the suspects car.

“We had great work by Detective Sanders and other agencies that have been hit with this. We discovered the more investigation that our team and Detective Sanders did into this we understood that this was all over the east coast. They been hitting Walmart’s for jewelry theft and it’s up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Sgt. Ford.

Sgt. Dusty Ford went on to say they don’t know if the two people arrested are U.S. Citizens and his department is reaching out to other agencies across the country to try and connect the dots.