TURNER ­— Two Portland area teens have been arrested in connection with a slew of burglaries at area gun and marijuana stores last month.

The teens, 16 and 17 years old, were arrested in Portland, one April 2 and the second Monday. They were not identified due to their juvenile status. Each was charged with a dozen counts of burglary, theft and criminal mischief.

Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Detective Nate McNally had been investigating the break-ins, attempted burglaries and thefts since mid-March.

The investigation involved several targeted businesses, including Northeastern Firearms, G3 Firearms and Vacationland Cannabis, all in Turner, and First Due Firearms in Sabattus.

At the burglary at Vacationland Cannabis at 1520 Auburn Road, more than $17,000 worth of product was stolen, investigators said.

Police also linked the suspects to the theft of three vehicles reported in Portland, Westbrook and Auburn, drawing investigators from those cities into the case. The stolen vehicles were ultimately recovered.

The case was resolved through old-school sleuthing, police said, and the assistance of emerging technology, including Flock cameras, surveillance footage and digital evidence.

At one point during the probe, police were able to analyze GPS information from an infotainment system inside a stolen GMC truck the teens had allegedly used during some of the heists.

“This is something the sheriff’s department does well,” McNally said. “We have investments in this kind of technology. Not every department is able to download these infotainment systems.”

In another instance, the suspects’ faces were revealed when a Maine Mall security guard demanded that the two teens remove their masks while shopping at a mall shoe store the day before the burglaries. When investigators reviewed surveillance footage from the mall, the suspects’ faces were revealed for the first time, McNally said.

“That mall security officer was really a saving grace,” he said. “Without those face IDs, I didn’t really know who I was dealing with.”

Once the digital and forensic evidence was compiled and the suspects positively identified, McNally secured arrest warrants for the two teens, who were ultimately taken to Long Creek Youth Development Center in South Portland.

The search for the suspects had been ongoing since the early morning hours of Friday, March 13.

The drama began about 3:20 a.m. that day when Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Cpl. Gregory Pealatere, en route to Vacationland Cannabis Co. in Turner for an activated alarm, spotted a pickup truck being driven without headlights.

Police said when the deputy attempted to follow the Ford F-150 pickup truck the driver sped away and Pealatere lost sight of it in the area of Main Street and Turner Center Road.

While investigating, Pealatere learned it had been stolen from a home off Marston Hill Road in Auburn.

More deputies arrived at the scene and when they returned to Vacationland Cannabis Co., they discovered the pot store had been burglarized and a variety of items stolen.

Meanwhile, it was believed that the same culprits had attempted to break into Northeastern Firearms at 868 Auburn Road. That matter came to light through a commercial burglary alarm that notified Maine State Police an attempted break-in had occurred at the gun store.

While investigating that matter, police found evidence linking the attempted break-in at Northeastern Firearms to a second, similar burglary attempt at First Due Firearms at 62 Greene St. in Sabattus.

That was reported earlier about 1:08 a.m. Friday, March 13, when Lewiston and Sabattus police responded along with deputies from the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office.

The stolen Ford F-150 pickup, meanwhile, was recovered in Westbrook, drawing another police department into the investigation.

At some of the local crime scenes, police said, images of the suspects were captured by surveillance cameras. Police also accessed camera footage from several cities and towns as they attempted to track the suspects’ movements.

The surveillance images from the crime scenes themselves provided a host of clues.

In one photo, a suspect stands facing a security camera, his face hidden by a balaclava. The images are sharp enough to reveal that he is wearing a North Face puffer jacket, the hood pulled over his head.

The second suspect was wearing a gray zip-up Alaskan Hardgear jacket with the logo “Spang Builders” embroidered on the left chest.

Police said other physical evidence was retrieved at the crime scenes as well as from the truck recovered in Westbrook.

Even as evidence piled up, McNally had reached out to the public for additional leads, using the department’s Facebook page to ask for help in identifying the suspects pictured in the surveillance photos.

A single Facebook post published about the break-ins was shared by more than 1,000 people, generating new leads over time.

Police said the investigation into the burglaries is ongoing and that more charges may be filed against the teens.