Migrant gangs create burglary ‘industry’ in U.S.
BY STEPHEN DINAN THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Federal authorities have identified a new crime “industry” involving robbery crews from South America who exploit America’s immigration system, break into a string of homes and make off with loot before fleeing back to their home countries.
Some arrive in the U.S. legally on short-term visas specifically to steal, while others are part of the ongoing border surge and are recruited into sophisticated theft operations.
Last week, six Chileans were arrested in New Jersey and charged in federal court with robberies stretching from the tonier neighborhoods of Baltimore to Westchester, New York. Residents reported losing diamond earrings, pearl necklaces and rare coins.
When federal agents caught up with the six migrants, they found a cache of burglary tools, including a handheld radial saw, cutting tools, punches for breaking glass windows, and balaclavas and work gloves.
The FBI said they are part of a trend of migrants who travel from South America, hop from community to community to burglarize multiple homes and then head back home.
“This isn’t your traditional crime spree; it is an actual industry of organized criminals who invade and shatter people’s private sanctuaries and steal valuable possessions,” said James E. Dennehy, the FBI’s special agent in charge at its office in Newark, New Jersey.
Chilean migrants have been implicated in strings of burglaries
in California, Florida and Michigan, and they are known for the planning they put into their jobs. They case neighborhoods, track routines and target homes of wealthy Americans.
They are even known to use jammers to block wireless security camera signals.
Sheriff Mike Bouchard in Oakland County, Michigan, said Chilean thieves stole $800,000 worth of cash and jewelry from a single home in his jurisdiction.
“They’re super well-trained when they get here, highly organized, they look like ninjas, they’re all masked up, gloves, they each have a backpack with their particular set of tools for their job in the burglary,” the sheriff said at a press conference last month.
Authorities say the Chileans often arrive legally as tourists, go on crime sprees and then return home. Chile is part of the U.S. visa waiver program, which means most visitors can skip the usual in-person interview overseas.
Other South American theft ring operators are illegal immigrants who appear to have been recruited into burglary gangs.
The six men charged in the latest New York and Maryland burglaries are Flavio Bladimir Astete Castillo, Dareyen Mauricio Cortes-Canete, Luis Esteban Castillo Vivar, Max Vidal Navarrete, Jordan Estefano Contreras Vilches and Juan Jose Ramirez Nilo.
Authorities say they were arrested as part of an investigation into burglaries in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. They traced a Kia Forte to one of the New York crime scenes and later located the vehicle outside an apartment building in Jersey City.
Security footage from the building showed figures lugging a safe the same day police in Baltimore received a report of a safe stolen from a home.
When authorities approached the men at a shopping mall in New Jersey that day, they found one of them wearing a chain necklace stolen from one of the New York burglaries. The Kia had bags containing other looted items.
Neither the U.S. attorney’s office nor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided immigration histories on the men, but five of them were arrested on April 19 by deportation officers, indicating they had less-than-solid legal status.
Mr. Nilo was released that day but was arrested later in Los Angeles, where he was being held late last week.
Authorities have also linked the South American crime wave to Colombians, Peruvians, Ecuadorians and Venezuelans — particularly Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan-born gang that has become a focus amid the Biden border surge.
The brother of the man accused of killing Georgia college student Laken Riley has been tied to the gang through tattoos and social media posts. Diego Ibarra sneaked into the U.S. last year, attempted to bite a Border Patrol agent, was released by ICE with an ankle monitor, cut off the monitor and began a string of alleged criminal entanglements, including shoplifting and driving under the influence. Police were called to his home for reported domestic violence.
Tren de Aragua also has been linked to the migrant mob that beat two New York City police officers this year, brazen motorcycle drive-by robberies of pedestrians’ cellphones and strings of burglaries targeting wealthy neighborhoods.
Patrick Lechleitner, acting director at ICE, said authorities are working to prevent Tren de Aragua from becoming a major threat.
“We don’t want it to become the next MS-13,” Mr. Lechleitner told The Washington Times in an interview. “We’re very cognizant of what occurred with MS-13 and what it took to get that under control, and we don’t want it to happen again. So we’re taking a very tough look at it to make sure we’re ahead of that curve if possible. But it is a concern, and it’s a problematic gang.”
Tren de Aragua has seeped into the U.S. immigration debate so quickly that Customs and Border Protection’s list of gang members apprehended didn’t include a category for them until last month.
CBP reports having spotted 41 members of the gang in 2023 and six members so far in fiscal 2024. Given the criminal activity blamed on Tren de Aragua, those numbers likely understate the gang’s presence in the U.S.
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