ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Albuquerque police wrapped up their holiday shopping tactical plan Friday. It was focused on catching shoplifting. 

91 people have arrests on their records. APD Chief Harold Medina says they also cleared out 47 warrants and recovered nearly $30,000 in stolen merchandise.

According to the chief, the operation really focused on northwest Albuquerque, near Cottonwood Mall, and Uptown. 

“A lot of these individuals we’re dealing with, a lot of the individuals that are frustrating the business community, the citizens of Albuquerque, they are not new to the criminal justice system,” said Medina. 

Medina highlighted three people. Police arrested the first two, Michael Utzler and Joseph Higginbotham, multiple times during this operation alone.

Court records show police arrested Utzler on Dec. 18, 19, and 26. They booked him into jail on shoplifting charges again Friday.

Police arrested Higginbotham on Dec. 1, 6, and 26. He’s currently out of jail.

Officers arrested Ryan Schuessler on Dec. 2. Medina says he’s a suspect in 21 previous shoplifting lifting cases. 

“Right now, this individual will be looking at 21 single misdemeanor cases, which we know a lot of times doesn’t have much of an impact in terms of consequences,” said Medina. 

Using the organized retail crime law, police and prosecutors can roll together multiple cases together to rack up the charges. That’s happening in Schuessler’s case, but as of right now, he’s out of jail. 

Despite ongoing issues with repeat offenders, Medina says the law is making a difference. 

“As we were able to utilize this law and started charging the first of, I think it was like 40, somewhere near 47 people with this law where we could make it a felony instead of a bunch of misdemeanors, we started to see the decrease in the second-half of the year on shoplifting. So, I do think that compared to last year, we had more of an impact because we were able to charge felonies on a lot of these repeat offenders,” said Medina. 

Medina says things are heading in the right direction in regards to auto-theft and violent crime in Albuquerque. We expect to get exact numbers from APD on that in the coming weeks.