FBI warns South American theft rings target scrap gold businesses

Gold’s surge to record levels has changed the theft math for anyone holding scrap, vintage pieces, or refinery inventory. The latest warning from the FBI and the Jewelers Security Alliance says South American Theft Groups are targeting gold refineries in New York and New Jersey, along with jewelry stores and other businesses that consolidate scrap gold.

The report says the risk rises because precious metals led by gold hit a record high in 2026, pushing more value into fewer, easier-to-move targets. It describes crews that watch businesses during normal operating hours, sometimes only days before a burglary, then come back on holidays or weekends, late at night or in the early morning, when staffing and response can be thinner.

The tactics are blunt and organized. The report cites countersurveillance, signal jammers, telescopic ladders, cutting tools, and spray paint used to knock out cameras before entry. It also points to disguises, including suspects posing as construction workers, a method that showed up in 20 burglary cases in JSA’s 2024 crime report. One identified crew leader, the FBI said, planned a refinery burglary in September 2025 that could have produced more than $100 million in losses if it had succeeded.

That warning lands in a market already under pressure. Gold moved past $2,500 an ounce in late 2024 and was around $2,700 then, but recent market trackers now show it near $4,700 to $4,800 an ounce in early April 2026, after touching an all-time high of $5,589.38 an ounce on January 28. The higher the melt value, the more attractive scrap, old jewelry, and refining stock become to crews looking for fast cash and quick fencing routes.

JSA said it shared the FBI report with members on April 3, and Scott Guginsky said the group regularly works with the FBI on these special alerts. The FBI’s Jewelry and Gem program, launched in 1992 after a rise in jewelry thefts from retailers and traveling salesmen, now maintains a jewelry crime database and works with industry partners to track organized theft rings and fencing networks. The message for jewelers and gold buyers is plain: day-shift routines can become night-time vulnerabilities, and any business holding gold should assume surveillance is part of the setup long before the break-in begins.