A series of recent robberies at luxury homes in the United States have been linked by several police departments in the country to South American suspects, mostly visa-exempt Chilean tourists.
On March 10 and 11, the Scottsdale (Arizona) police carried out an operation that included patrols, drones, helicopters and dozens of agents to locate a gang of thieves that recently attacked several homes in the city.
The Chileans Greece Romanduski Gaete Castle32 years old, Sebastian Jesus Parraguez Soto23, and a 17-year-old minor, who was not identified due to his age, were arrested after the search.
“These are professionals”Scottsdale Police Chief Jeff Walther said during a news conference. “These are teams of Chilean thieves who are entering the country with a visa waiver program.”
Walther explained that the three suspects had entered the country legally as tourists. Castillo and the minor were still within the 90-day limit granted by the Visa Waiver Program for Chile, which exempts tourists from that country from applying for a tourist visa, while Soto had exceeded the grace period.
The three admitted to having entered several homes in Arizona, California and Nevadaas part of a growing trend of “robbery tourism” from South America, the police chief said.
They go to “high-level” residences
Arizona authorities found court documents that showed the 17-year-old Chilean had been detained by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) two weeks earlier along with three other Chileans as part of a robbery investigation in the wealthy Pacific neighborhood. Palisades.
LAPD Chief Dominic Choi recently said that there is “a significant increase in robberies in the city by organized groups from abroad” that are entering the country, and they are targeting high-level residents, according to information cited by Los Angeles Times.
Choi recounted the case of the Chilean Felipe Leiva Solis33, arrested in August of last year by Burbank police and released. Three months later he was arrested by Glendale police on suspicion of robberies in that city.
Leiva Solís is believed to be a suspect in other series of robberies in several cities in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
Choi said he was forming a task force with other law enforcement agencies to target organized groups of thieves who come to the United States as tourists.
They warn homeowners that they will go on vacation
The deputy chief of the LAPD, Alan Hamilton, pointed out to the aforementioned media that groups of South American thieves are not new in Los Angeles, but They have become more active in recent months and that in addition to Chileans, Ecuadorian, Peruvian and Colombian suspects have also been arrested.
The growing number of cases in the country has once again brought criticism against the Visa Waiver Program for Chile to the table.
Last year, Republicans in the US House of Representatives asked the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, to suspend the program.
Concern about robber gangs from South America has reached states like Indiana, where The authorities have warned homeowners of the situation who usually leave home during spring break.
Hamilton County Deputy Prosecutor Joshua Kocher described the suspects as “thorough and methodical in their operations.” “They come by plane and rent a vehicle, usually a nice vehicle, so that it adapts to the neighborhood”.
Police said robbery gangs from South America were behind half of the 16 robberies reported in 2023 in Fishers, a city in Hamilton County. In Baltimore (Maryland), five Chileans were charged last month for robberies in that city and for being linked to crimes in other states.
All were in the country illegally, according to the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE), cited by FOX.
Keep reading:
– Van Nuys resident is attacked by thieves when he surprises them when they were looting his home.
– This is how the million-dollar theft of a special edition Rolls Royce occurred in a Miami restaurant.