Three Arrested in Booze Theft

Santa Fe Police arrested three men Friday after a robbery at the Giant gas station on Sawmill Road.

Arrested on robbery, conspiracy and possession of drug paraphernalia charges were Orlando Salazar, 40, of Española; his brother Bobby Salazar, 34, also of Española; and Angelo Tinoco, 27, of Santa Fe.

Tinoco also was charged with receiving or transferring a stolen motor vehicle. All three men remain in custody in the Santa Fe County jail.

According to a statement of probable cause, police were called to the gas station shortly after 2 p.m. Friday to investigate a possible shoplifting.

The store’s assistant manager told police two men put bottles of alcohol in their pants and when confronted, one showed a black folding knife and said, “back off, I have a knife.”

The men ran out and drove away in a Nissan Frontier truck, which had been reported stolen earlier in the week.

Police found the truck on Old Pecos Trail and Storey Lane, where Tinoco, the driver, told police the truck belonged to his father. Then the store manager arrived and identified Tinoco as the driver of the vehicle that had fled after the robbery.

The manager also identified Bobby Salazar as the man who flashed the knife and Orlando Salazar as the man who participated in hiding bottles of alcohol in his pants.

Police found a black folding knife under Bobby Salazar’s seat.

Police also found a zippered pouch in the driver’s side door pocket with a syringe and small cotton balls and, in an incision in the back of the seat, two more syringes and a spoon containing burned residue.

Orlando Salazar told police that all three of the men used heroin and had shoplifted food from another store before going to the gas station and trying to steal alcohol, according to the statement of probable cause.