Family of stolen show dog explains complex rescue by South Fulton Police

A Florida family was reunited with their prized show dog on Sunday after South Fulton Police busted an alleged organized crime ring who was apparently holding the dog for several weeks.

The dog, named Crayola, was stolen along with the Roldan family's other show dog, Hero, from a gas station on Salem Road in Conyers in December.

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Since then, the family has gone to great lengths to help police get their dogs back. The Roldans paid $3,500 to the suspects to get their French Bulldog Hero back, but the group would not surrender Crayola.

After weeks, the South Fulton Police Department made busts at two separate homes, arresting multiple people for the theft of the Roldans' car and dogs, along with multiple other crimes.

The City of South Fulton Police Department said this bust was a months-long operation, and is taking dangerous people and weapons away from the public.

“We got a lot of guns and narcotics off the streets,” said Chief of the City of South Fulton Police Department, Keith Meadows.

“It’s shocking to us she’s even alive it’s been so long,” said dog owner Julian Roldan.
 
The operation to rescue Crayola revealed a much larger organized crime ring than the family expected. Officers said they’ve been investigating this gang since September.
 
”It took a lot of man hours surveillance, investigations, arrests to get us where we are now,” said Sgt. Tealer with The City of South Fulton Police Department. 
 
Officers with multiple agencies, including the GBI, participated in this raid that took place at two separate residences.

Police said this bust took down a small arm of a very dangerous street gang in Atlanta called “Sex, Money, Murder.”
 
”A very violent street gang, and you can see the guns we took out of the two residences is an indication of the type of violence they can escalate to, so we're talking armed robbery, aggravated assaults, and things of that nature,” said Chief Meadows.
 
Officers said these five arrests are certainly a great step in making the community safer, but there is still much work to be done. 

“We don’t know the extent of that gang, but we certainly know it’s much larger than the individuals that we have in custody,” said Chief Meadows.
 
”I just am so thankful,” said Prie Roldan. “Somebody  else won’t get extorted, somebody won’t get their car stolen. And I think people will think twice about stealing a car with a dog inside.”

The City of South Fulton Police Department is not releasing the names of those they’ve arrested because they have an active warrant out for one more person’s arrest. Officers are working with the U.S. Marshals to get that person into custody.