A Denver man faces multiple felony charges after being accused of tampering with water infrastructure that transports water to Front Range cities.
The Colorado Attorney General’s Office and the 14th District Attorney’s Office this week charged Fabrizio Lorenzin, 65, with four felonies in connection with repeated sabotage of the and its security cameras over several years.
The remote ditch system begins at 11,200 feet high on its namesake pass in the mountains and helps funnel water to Northglenn and Golden. The in Guanella Reservoir in Clear Creek County and in Standley Lake in Adams County.
Lorenzin allegedly forced open headgates on the system’s ditches, damaging the infrastructure and diverting millions of dollars’ worth of drinking water from its intended destination downstream.
Prosecutors allege that he also stole cameras meant to watch the district’s property.
“Protecting critical water infrastructure is a core public safety mission,” Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a news release Friday announcing the charges. “This prosecution reflects our commitment to working side by side with federal and local partners to identify threats quickly and ensure those responsible are held accountable.”
Charging and arrest documents do not specify why Lorenzin allegedly tampered with the gates and diverted water, or for what purpose.
Law enforcement first began investigating the possible tampering with the headgates in August 2019, according to an arrest affidavit documenting the investigation. That’s when four of the gates that control the direction of the flow of water were vandalized, diverting water worth approximately $1.3 million, the affidavit says.
A security camera captured images of an older man with a distinctive backpack, but investigators could not identify him at the time.
Headgates were damaged again in 2022, diverting $4.3 million in water, the affidavit says. Trail cameras again photographed the same man with the same backpack. Another headgate was damaged in 2023 when it was forced open and propped up with rocks. This time, the trail cameras were also stolen.
In 2024, the affidavit says, federal investigators with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency installed three cameras with Apple AirTags attached. More images from the area showed the same man with the same backpack.
In August 2024, the AirTags on the stolen cameras pinged from inside Lorenzin’s home, the affidavit says, and investigators searched it on two occasions, finding the disassembled EPA cameras and a laptop that contained images from other stolen cameras. A review of the search history on the laptop found multiple searches for information related to sabotage on the Berthoud Pass system as well as information about trail cameras and headgates, the documents says.
Lorenzin has been arrested, court records show. He faces one count of tampering with a public water system, two counts of felony theft and one count of tampering with physical evidence.
