The FBI says this {photograph}, taken the day after NFL quarterback Joe Burrow’s home was burglarized, reveals a number of suspects within the crime with objects that have been reported stolen, together with Burrow’s jewellery bearing his jersey quantity, 9. The company believes the theft was the work of a South American crime ring.
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The current housebreaking of Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow’s mansion is a part of a wave of “crime tourism,” by which worldwide housebreaking groups journey throughout the U.S. to steal from houses in prosperous areas, in accordance with the Justice Division.
The burglars typically use subtle methods to beat safety measures to allow them to pilfer jewellery, watches and luxurious items from mansions. The FBI calls them South American Theft Groups; lots of the suspects arrested to this point (together with in Burrow’s case) are from Chile.
A sample of ways utilized by the groups matches the Ohio burglary of Burrow’s home in early December and different crimes — together with current burglaries concentrating on skilled athletes, FBI spokesman Todd Lindgren instructed NPR. In current months, burglars focused the houses of high-profile gamers such because the NFL’s Travis Kelce and NBA’s Luca Doncic.
Final week, a federal courtroom unsealed a January indictment charging two men with working a big jewellery fencing operation in New York Metropolis.
The indictment alleged the defendants were “fences” for South American housebreaking crews who roved the U.S. concentrating on rich neighborhoods and supplied “a necessary marketplace for the stolen items” between 2020 and 2025. One of many males had been in touch with suspects within the housebreaking of a high-profile athlete in Ohio final December, a press launch from the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the Jap District of New York acknowledged.
Cincinnati case echoes a wider sample
Authorities say Sergio Andres Ortega Cabello, a citizen of Chile, rented a Volkswagen Atlas in Florida — and that the automobile was tracked to Cincinnati and again to Florida after the break-in at Joe Burrow’s home. Cabello is seen right here within the driver’s seat, with one other Chilean suspect, Bastian Alejandro Orellana Morales, within the passenger seat.
FBI / Screenshot by NPR
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FBI / Screenshot by NPR
An FBI particular agent who investigated the Burrow housebreaking stated it “was per burglaries executed by South American Theft Teams (SATG),” in accordance with an affidavit.
Legislation enforcement companies throughout the nation, FBI Particular Agent Aaron Bauder wrote, “have had burglaries that match the SATG M.O. whereby skilled athletes have been the victims.”
“The SATG M.O. for residential burglaries embody concentrating on high-end homes that again as much as inexperienced areas, strolling trails, golf programs, or different undeveloped land,” Bauder wrote. “They then acquire entry to the residence by a rear window or glass door, on the second flooring when attainable.”
The thieves give attention to jewellery and designer equipment, that are usually offered by unlawful fences alongside the coasts, in states reminiscent of New York, California, and Florida, he stated.
“The teams normally include overseas nationals from South America who both enter the nation illegally or overstay on visas to proceed committing their crimes,” Bauder wrote. “SATG’s typically journey utilizing rental autos and can carry false identifications and paperwork,” he stated, including that the teams routinely activate and de-activate cellphones, generally in lower than a month.
Within the Burrow case, the suspects allegedly carried bogus ID playing cards purportedly from Argentina and different international locations, and bearing false names, in accordance with the affidavit.
The burglaries are a part of a wave of crime tourism. The FBI has a nationwide working group dedicated to South American Theft Teams; the Ohio Bureau of Prison Investigation fashioned a activity power to deal with them final March.
The FBI has issued tips for minimizing the possibilities of being victimized by the crime gangs, together with avoiding saying on social media that you simply’re on trip. The company has additionally particularly warned pro sports leagues that athletes could possibly be focused, according to ABC News, which first reported the event.
A lot of the main focus of the theft rings is on Chile, due partly to its 2014 inclusion within the U.S. Visa Waiver Program that lets overseas residents go to the U.S. for as much as 90 days and not using a visa. Chile stays the one South American nation on the U.S. visa waiver list.
In 2023, members of Congress from California wrote to Chile’s ambassador to the U.S., saying they’d “robust issues” that the Chilean authorities wasn’t doing sufficient to forestall criminals from touring to the U.S. In only one 12 months, they stated, “14 Chilean nationals have been charged with burglaries and different associated crimes in Orange County after getting into the USA below the [visa waiver program].”
Related issues have been raised in Michigan, the place state lawmakers said that in 2023, “a number of Chilean nationals who had entered the nation below the Visa Waiver Program have been arrested for stealing hundreds of thousands of {dollars}’ value of products in [Michigan’s] Oakland County space.”
Regardless of the give attention to Chile, South American Theft Group circumstances have additionally been discovered to have ties to quite a few different international locations, such as Colombia. And the FBI’s Sacramento, Calif., field office says a bunch with members from Chile, Peru, and Venezuela has been linked to classy robberies concentrating on a minimum of 29 ATM robberies throughout a minimum of eight states.
An extended path led to the Burrow suspects, investigators say
Three Chilean males at the moment are dealing with federal costs associated to the housebreaking at Burrow’s home, the place thieves took almost $300,000 value of bijou, designer baggage, and different objects on the night of Dec. 9, 2024, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in southern Ohio. On the time, Burrow was in Texas for a recreation towards the Dallas Cowboys.
Jordan Francisco Quiroga Sanchez, 22; Bastian Alejandro Orellana Morales, 23; and Sergio Andres Ortega Cabello, 38, face costs together with transporting stolen items throughout state strains and falsifying information in a federal investigation, along with state charges.
Ohio State Freeway Patrol initially arrested the three after a visitors cease in January, together with one other man within the automobile, Alexander Esteban Huaiquil Chavez, who faces state costs. An officer-worn digital camera recorded the visitors cease, displaying one of many males carrying a Bengals knit cap. Gadgets at the back of the truck included a T-shirt from LSU, the place Burrow starred in school. Instruments that may punch a gap in a window have been tucked behind the glove compartment.
A ‘fence’ pawn store was raided in Manhattan
On Tuesday, federal prosecutors in New York Metropolis announced the arrests of two males working a Manhattan pawn store who’re alleged in courtroom paperwork to have “frequently served as ‘fences’ for South American Theft Teams (‘SATG’) who engaged in crime tourism.”
One of many males, Dimitriy Nezhinskiy, was linked to a minimum of two of the lads arrested in Ohio by telephone information and video surveillance, in accordance with a courtroom submitting by the U.S. lawyer for the Jap District of New York. The doc alleges that Nezhinskiy additionally had contact with one of many Ohio suspects lower than per week earlier than Burrow’s home was damaged into.
Nezhinskiy and one other suspect, Juan Villar, every now face one federal rely of conspiracy to obtain stolen property and three counts of receipt of stolen property. They’re accused of fencing “numerous items of stolen merchandise taken from throughout the USA” and having ties to “a minimum of 5 separate housebreaking crews” which have been working since 2020. These crews have been “composed largely of overseas nationals,” prosecutors stated.
Authorities’ searches of Nezhinskiy’s storage models discovered “giant portions of luxurious items and clothes, together with high-end purses, wine, sports activities memorabilia, jewellery and artwork,” in accordance with courtroom paperwork. Prosecutors say the models additionally held energy instruments generally utilized in burglaries and opening safes. In addition they allege that witnesses stated Nezhinskiy and Villar “coached them to steal objects away from New York so will probably be simpler for the defendants to resell the objects and tougher for legislation enforcement to trace.”
The paperwork say Nezhinskiy, a Georgian nationwide, “has been topic to a remaining order of elimination [from the U.S.] since 2003. Nevertheless, Nezhinskiy stays in the USA as he can’t be returned to his dwelling nation.”
