Multi-Million Dollar Retail Crime Ring Conviction Lauded By Police

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL — It took five years, but the Arlington Heights Police Department got their guy. Last month, Artur Gilowski, 48, of Barrington, was convicted at trial of running a multi-million-dollar retail crime ring.

Gilowski, who was detained immediately after the verdict was read on March 31, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property and conspiracy to commit mail fraud.

According to evidence presented at trial, Gilowski’s co-conspirators stole tens of thousands of products — valued at over $20 million — from brick-and-mortar retail stores across the United States, then shipped them Gilowski, who sold the stolen goods on various e-commerce websites, generating more than $11 million in profits. Seven of the co-conspirators pled guilty prior to trail.

Gilowski faces up to 25 years in federal prison. He is set for sentencing on Aug. 2, according to the U.S. Attorney's of the Northern District of Texas, where the case was prosecuted.

Arlington Heights police said the conviction is the culmination of an approximately five-year effort undertaken by the department, working in conjunction with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office Regional Organized Crime Unit, Downers Grove Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

In December 2015, the Arlington Heights Police Department said it received a report of a residential burglary. A witness to the crime captured the license plate of the offending vehicle, determined to have been registered under a fictitious name and address by a car dealership in Chicago. Lacking viable leads for the investigation of the residential burglary, detectives chose to target the dealership responsible for the providing the fictitious registration.

Through an undercover operation, the owner of the dealership was arrested in 2016 and charged with numerous felonies, according to police. An analysis of the dealer’s financial records revealed numerous check payments issued from businesses in the Chicagoland area and Coppell, Texas, later determined to be operating as fences of stolen property.

Police said further investigation revealed a network of individuals responsible for organized retail crimes and residential burglaries were supplying the fences with stolen property. The group was determined to have been traveling the country stealing small products such as printer ink cartridges, light switches, pet products and small electronic devices as well as stealing locally in Arlington Heights and the surrounding area. The group utilized “booster skirts” (garments with concealment pouches for stolen goods) and electronic jamming devices designed to disrupt retailers’ anti-theft and loss-prevention measures to complete thefts.

Arlington Heights police said once the products were stolen, they were mailed to a network of storage lockers in the Chicagoland area established with fictitious information. Detectives conducted surveillance of members of the group as they departed on these theft trips, traveling to states from California to Florida, intercepting the mailed packages and inspecting the stolen goods contained within.

The storage lockers served as a temporary repository for the packages of stolen goods, which were picked up by Gilowski and another co-conspirator, before being transported to storefronts in Chicago and Franklin Park, according to police. At these storefronts, the co-conspirators removed security tags and retailer stickers from the products before posting the items for sale through numerous profiles on the e-commerce websites Amazon and eBay. Bulk shipments of stolen goods were also shipped to another fence of stolen property operating in Coppell, Texas, where the case was ultimately charged.

Police said Gilowski and his co-conspirators created a network of online seller profiles, multiple bank accounts and various companies to conduct the unlawful sales scheme. In total, the group was responsible for completing the sale of hundreds of thousands of stolen products for more than 20 million dollars.

The evidence, according to police, also showed that Gilowski received more than a million dollars in cash from co-conspirators — including over $97,000 in cash that was found in the center console of Gilowski’s truck at the time of his arrest — which led one of Gilowski’s co-conspirators to testify at trial that Gilowski “treated money like trash.”

In September 2019, 26 co-conspirators were indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property. Gilowski was subsequently indicted on an additional charge of conspiracy to commit mail fraud.