FBI Issues Warning to Refineries, Retailers Due to High Price of Gold

Newark, N.J.—The high price of gold, which is easily melted and turned into cash, prompted the Federal Bureau of Investigation to issue an alert specifically for precious metal refineries and jewelry retailers.

Published earlier this month, the seven-page bulletin was a collaboration among the FBI’s Newark field office, its Office of the Private Sector, and the Jewelers’ Security Alliance.

In it, the FBI warns that organized burglary crews from South America—mainly Chile, Colombia, and Venezuela—are targeting industrial gold refining facilities, jewelry stores, and other retail entities that consolidate scrap gold in New York and New Jersey.

Jewelry stores in malls and shopping centers are particularly at risk, with the crews often disguising themselves as construction workers while they case the store. 

The bulletin mentions one specific incident from September 2025.

An individual identified as the leader of one of these gangs planned a burglary at a gold refinery in the New York/New Jersey area, looping in one member of the crew who specializes in cutting safes.

Though the plan was never carried out, it could have resulted in a $100 million-plus loss.

“These incidents are occurring as the price of precious metals—led by gold—reached a record high in 2026, increasing theft risks across the supply chain and making refineries and transporters primary targets for sophisticated criminal organizations,” the bulletin states.

The price of gold hit an all-time high of $5,414 an ounce earlier this year before taking a dive in mid-March.

Gold was hovering around $4,800 as of press time, according to Kitco.com.

JSA Vice President Scott Guginsky explained that these crews are the same ones that cut through sidewalls and roofs to torch safes and vaults at independent jewelers and large retail chains.

Refineries are a target too.

The gangs are going after gold not only because the price is high but also because it’s more difficult to trace; it can be melted down with no questions asked and converted to cash.

“It’s easier to fence gold than trying to fence diamonds or watches,” Guginsky said in an interview with National Jeweler. “Gold is gold.” 

The bulletin notes that the burglary gangs run “detailed” surveillance both inside and outside of businesses during regular operating hours, starting a few days before they try to hit it.

The burglaries typically take place over the weekend or on holidays—a pattern JSA has noted in the past—either late at night or early in the morning.  

Guginsky said all these crews use cell phone jamming technology.

According to Stanley Oppenheim, CEO of DGA Security Systems, cell phone jammers are predominately manufactured in China. While technically illegal in the United States, they can be purchased online.

They generally measure about a foot high, 8 inches wide, and 4 inches deep and weigh a couple of pounds, with up to 12 antennas on top. 

Cell phone jammers are placed outside of a business that is a burglary target and emit “noise,” meaning static, that floods the store’s cellular telephone network, making it impossible for the store’s alarm system to communicate with the alarm monitoring center. 

Now, Oppenheim explained in an interview with National Jeweler, if a jewelry business has UL-rated line security, meaning there is constant communication between the business and the alarm company’s monitoring center to ensure the connection is intact, the presence of a jammer will create an alarm condition by interfering with the communications to the monitoring center. 

“Line security is better and also more expensive, because it is polling continuously to make sure the location and the central station are in constant contact,” he said. 

Oppenheim said many business owners think they have line security when, in fact, they do not. 

He recommended jewelry business owners call their alarm companies to ensure they have UL-rated line security and get the guarantee in writing.  

If businesses don’t have line security and burglars use a cell phone jammer, they can break into the store and set off the alarm without worrying about the police showing up, because the monitoring center will not receive the signal. 

“The alarm will work; what won’t work is communication. The signal won’t get out,” Oppenheim said. 

JSA’s Guginsky recommends jewelry business owners install technology that detects cell phone jammers, like DGA’s JamGuard. 

Oppenheim said JamGuard detects the static being emitted by a cell phone jammer in a second or two. It then sends a signal via broadband internet to the monitoring center, which treats it as an alarm condition.  

“The idea of JamGuard is to get them before they enter the store,” he said. 

The FBI alert contains more than two dozen tips on how to tell if a store is being cased, where to position safes, which safes to buy, what technology jewelers should invest in, and more, all provided by JSA. 

Guginsky said the FBI does not normally put out detailed bulletins like this about jewelry industry crime, but the bureau felt it was warranted under the current circumstances. 

“The reason they put it out is they think [these crews are] a threat to these industries, the jewelry industry and the refineries,” he said.  

“We say at JSA, be proactive, not reactive. Be proactive so you don’t have to be reactive.”