5 arrested in Cape heists, break-ins

A routine arrest led authorities yesterday to a Hyannis home where they found a secret passage and one of Cape Cod's largest illicit stashes of jewelry, paintings, and marine equipment, which officials said is worth more than $1.6 million.

''It's one of the largest busts in recent Cape Cod history," said Sergeant Sean Sweeney, a spokesman for the Barnstable Police Department, noting police found the paintings behind a fake wall and the jewelry in a hollowed-out staircase in the Hyannis house of suspect George Upton.

At an arraignment in Orleans District Court yesterday, in which he pleaded not guilty to charges of breaking and entering, larceny, and receiving stolen property, Upton was ordered held on $250,000 bail at the Barnstable House of Correction, said Craig Nickerson, an Orleans attorney appointed by the court to represent him.

Before his arrest yesterday, Upton, 52, had been free on bail, awaiting sentencing in federal district court after being convicted in October of four separate money-laundering charges, Sweeney said.

Sweeney described Upton as ''notorious on the Cape. He's a major player."

In 1980, Upton was arrested after police found allegedly illicit jewelry at his mobile home in Yarmouth. Five years later, the case made headlines when the Supreme Judicial Court ruled police lacked probable cause to obtain a search warrant. The case set a stricter standard for evaluating search warrants.

Upton could not be reached for comment last night. A relative reached at his home declined to comment.

The latest investigation began Tuesday when Chatham police arrested Jason Sylvester, 26, and Sara Senno, 23, who live together in West Dennis, on charges they had attempted to break into Forest Beach Design Jewelry Store in Chatham.

The jewelry store owner, Steve Wardle, said yesterday that the attempted heist occurred in August and that police caught a suspect right away.

Sweeney wouldn't say what led police to Upton, but he noted that Senno was found with jewelry and accessories allegedly stolen from Eden Hand Arts in Dennis, which last June was robbed of $800,000 worth of gold and silver jewelry.

Specifically, police found Senno with one of Eden's sought-after Cape Cod Screwball bracelets, he said.

Chatham detectives then called Dennis police, who obtained an arrest warrant for Upton.

At about 5 a.m. yesterday, with search warrants, town police began searching Upton's house in Hyannis.

Behind a television armoire, police found a fake wall, behind which they found more than a dozen paintings worth about $500,000, Sweeney said. The paintings, depicting seascapes and other Cape settings, had been stolen from a home in Hyannis Port, he said.

The loot represented about two-thirds of the paintings stolen from the Hyannis Port home.

In a hollow step in a staircase leading from the garage to the house, police discovered hundreds of thousands of dollars in Rolex watches, diamond rings, blocks of gold, silver coins, and an assortment of necklaces, bracelets, and other jewelry, Sweeney said.

Some of the jewelry came from Eden Hand Arts, Sweeney said. Other items are from an armed robbery in Fort Wayne, Ind., in which $250,000 in jewelry was stolen, and from a theft in July from George Courtney Jewelers in Osterville, Sweeney said.

About $8,000 worth of goods from that theft were found.

But in a phone interview, Courtney, the owner of the Osterville shop, estimated he had $28,000 worth of jewels stolen.

He said the thieves were so cruel that they took his prescription glasses out of their case, put them on the floor, and then stepped on them.

''This was vindictive," he said.

As police searched Upton's home yesterday, Frank Upton, the suspect's 41-year-old brother, tried to push his way past police to enter the home, Sweeney said. Frank Upton, who lives in Hyannis and who had a loaded 9mm gun with him, was arrested for assault and battery on a police officer. Police later searched Frank Upton's home and found jewelry and coins that may also have been stolen, Sweeney said.

Another suspect in the thefts, Mark Fornal, 41, who lives at the same address as Frank Upton in Hyannis, was arrested on charges he tried to break into Barbyann's restaurant in Hyannis on Dec. 8, Sweeney said.

Barnstable officers yesterday also found six Yamaha marine outboard engines, all in their original packaging, at a home on Chopteaque Lane in Barnstable, Sweeney said.

The engines, he said, are worth $75,000 and were stolen from Millway Marine in Barnstable. He would not say who owned the house or whether someone there is under investigation.

Sweeney said all the suspects would soon be arraigned in Barnstable and Orleans district courts on charges including receiving stolen property, larceny, and breaking and entering at nighttime.

He would not say when the suspects would be arraigned or what charges they would face. The investigation is continuing, he said, and he expects more charges to be filed.