LAWRENCE — By day, David A. Barker and Efrain Montero worked together at a Chelmsford moving company, setting up and taking down corporate offices. By night, authorities say, they ran a sophisticated theft ring, disabling alarm systems and drilling holes through walls to haul away cash and electronics from ATMs and stores across New England.
Police raided both of their homes early Monday, arresting the two men in Lawrence and seizing more than $100,000 in cash — rubber-banded stacks of $20s and $50s — and a Ruger 9mm handgun from Montero’s home.
They charged the two men with five recent break-ins that netted $357,000 in cash and $119,000 worth of iPads, MacBooks, and other Apple products — and with four other attempts in which the two fled, authorities said. Police also sought warrants for half a dozen cars they say were purchased with stolen cash, and to bring charges against two others who allegedly aided Barker and Montero.
Though the crimes cut across Massachusetts and other states in New England, Barker and Montero were arraigned for the Commonwealth cases in Lawrence District Court on Monday on 31 combined charges, under a 2015 retail-theft law allowing cases to be grouped in one jurisdiction if they are part of a larger criminal enterprise. Judge Kevin Gaffney set bail for the men at $500,000 each, though prosecutors sought $1 million.
“This case is a regional case. The crimes in this matter transcend this county, transcend this state, and really extend throughout the New England region,’’ Essex Assistant District Attorney Philip Mallard said. He called the acts a “very disciplined, very nuanced, and very sophisticated’’ criminal operation that typically involved scouting trips as well as stolen cars to aid in the break-ins and thefts.
Lawyers for both men — Barker, 39, and Montero, 40 — argued for their release on personal recognizance, calling them family men and suggesting that the case is built on circumstantial evidence.
Trooper Christopher St. Ives of the State Police’s gang unit labeled each a “career criminal’’ and cited Barker and Montero’s long records in an affidavit.
This case began last October, after police responded to the theft of $119,000 worth of Apple products from a Mansfield store called Simply Mac.
Working at night, the thieves cut one hole from a neighboring business into an adjoining hallway, then a second hole into Simply Mac, where they disabled alarm and video systems, Mallard said. That was part of an M.O. that authorities would come to identify, he added, with the thieves waiting to see if they had successfully dismantled the alarm or if police would respond — and then completing the heist if it remained quiet.
After investigators petitioned an Essex County Grand Jury to seek records from Apple, Mallard said, they discovered Montero had linked his own phone number to some of the stolen products while connecting iTunes accounts.
Police got a break in March when officers in Wellesley happened upon a 2 a.m. scene in which a hole had been cut from a vacant store into an ATM next door, though the ATM had not yet been compromised, according to Mallard and the affidavit.
The robbers left behind two duffel bags filled with tools while fleeing in two vehicles, one of them a stolen van and the other a Honda that turned out to be registered to Montero’s Apple ID address and the name of his wife or girlfriend, Mallard said. Meanwhile, Wellesley Detective Robert Gallagher, a trained fingerprint analyst, identified Barker from a thumb print on a container of grinding wheels abandoned at the scene, authorities said.
Barker was still on probation for two different recent cases, including one out of Middlesex County in which he had served prison time; his probation officer gave police his number. Armed with cell numbers for both men, investigators sifted through records and began tying the pair to other recent ATM break-ins by studying their calls to each other as well as their locations in the cell-tower network, Mallard said.
Combing video, license-plate scans, and even a “voluminous amount of documents from Home Depot,’’ authorities linked the men to other alleged crimes as well as to a cash purchase to replace the tools they left behind in Wellesley, Mallard said.
He acknowledged that the two men were usually “disciplined enough’’ to turn off their cellphones — leaving gaps in their locations — while committing their crimes. But they left their phones on during their scouting trips and could also be seen on video in those “casing’’ visits, he said.
Kenneth Allison, a lawyer for Barker, said much of the footage shows an unidentifiable man in a North Face jacket. “Your honor, in the winter in New England, I’m sure there are many North Face jackets around,’’ he said.
Allison said Barker has some stepchildren he supports.
Montero’s lawyer, Mark Hooper, said Montero is divorced and is raising his three children.
In court, both men stood silently in handcuffs, Barker in a rumpled T-shirt, Montero in a white polo. Montero appeared to have a group of family and friends in the courtroom, but they declined to comment while leaving.
The owner of the moving company where the two men work also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Three of the crimes took place in Vermont — one of them a $50,000 ATM robbery in Burlington in May and two attempted robberies in Killington, and the thieves also stole $175,000 from an ATM in Berwick, Maine. Mallard called the Maine theft “the mother lode’’ and said federal authorities may bring charges in that state.
The multistate investigation is ongoing, and police in Concord, N.H., on Monday said they believed Barker and Montero may be tied to an attempted break-in of a Merrimack County Savings Bank in that city just this past Sunday night, Detective Sergeant Sean Ford said.
Globe correspondent Dylan McGuinness contributed to this report. Eric Moskowitz can be reached at eric.moskowitz@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeMoskowitz.
