The Los Angeles Police Department has launched a task force to try to crack down on ‘burglary tourists’ who use the US tourism visa system to commit crimes.
Cunning criminals from Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru target wealthy neighborhoods in places with relaxed criminal justice laws to conduct home burglaries – before returning home with the loot while out on bail.
The troubling trend of ‘lanzas internacionales’ – translated to ‘international thieves’ – dates back at least two years across America, while the problem has also reared its ugly head in the United Kingdom.
Authorities in Los Angeles announced the task force after a 17-year-old Chilean national was caught in Arizona following a series of jewel heists across the California city. The FBI set up its own task force to combat the thieves in 2022.
The suspect and his two accomplices – 32-year-old Grecia Romanduski Gaete Castillo and 23-year-old Sebastian Jesus Parraguez Soto, all from Chile – were taken into custody, where they admitted to breaking into several homes in the region.
The Los Angeles Police Department has started a task force attempt to stop ‘burglary tourists’ who have been using the United States’ tourism visa system to commit crimes
Suspects: 32-year-old Grecia Romanduski Gaete Castillo (pictured right) and 23-year-old Sebastian Jesus Parraguez Soto (pictured left) were taken into custody
In fact, the 17-year-old – who has not been identified because of their age – was initially arrested weeks earlier in the Los Angeles area with three other Chileans for robbing homes.
The teenager falsified Venezuelan identification and continuously got away from the LAPD by making excuses that his parents had left him alone in the country with a friend of the family.
He then disappeared after he was turned over to the child and family services unit.
Experts say the issue has been increasing over the past five years, as South Americans continue to use the tourist visa system to rob Americans.
Law enforcement experts say the foreign cells of professional burglars – mostly from Columbia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru – enter the country illegally or exploit a 2014 visa waiver program intended to spur tourism from dozens of trusted countries.
The program, known as ESTA – Electronic System for Travel Authorization – allows South Americans to enter the United States for an unlimited number of 90-day periods.
After entering the country, they carry out strings of break-ins and other crimes, bringing home up to hundreds of millions of dollars in stolen goods, the FBI said.
In more conservative Orange County, District Attorney Todd Spitzer has gone full boar on the crime tourists who have been behind hundreds of break-ins.
Scottsdale Police released video footage of recent thefts by South American ‘burglary tourists’
Experts say the issue has been increasing over the past five years, as South Americans use the tourist visa system to rob Americans
‘The number of crimes tied to these kind of crews are way, way up,’ said LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton
Spitzer’s argued that the Chilean government, led by socialist President Gabriel Boric, refuses to give the US criminal histories of Chileans who use the program, which other South American countries typically do.
He’s even sued the federal government for not disclosing negotiations with Chile over visa requirements and is calling for new laws to stop these criminals from getting into the country.
‘The number of crimes tied to these kind of crews are way, way up,’ said LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton, despite overall burglaries being down.
He said that in one part of Los Angeles alone there were 94 burglaries believed to be committed by the ‘crime tourists’ in 2023.
Hamilton told the LA Times that these groups are rarely armed but are more likely equipped with what’s known as ‘jamming’ devices to access a home’s WiFi and potentially unlock home security systems in affluent neighborhoods.
‘They often target homes often connected to open spaces, hiking trails and canyons that give them access,’ Hamilton said.
The LAPD sent out a tweet pledging to use the task force to stop the problem.
They said: ‘LAPD recognizes the increase in burglaries where homes in affluent neighborhoods are targeted.
Hamilton said that these groups are rarely armed but are more likely equipped with what’s known as ‘jamming’ devices to access a home’s WiFi and potentially unlock home security systems in affluent neighborhoods
The LAPD sent out a tweet earlier this week pledging to use the task force to stop the problem
‘We’re in the process of connecting with other agencies impacted by these organized groups coming to the country specifically to engage in this criminal activity.’
They also tend to target people with less comprehensive alarm systems or only alarm systems for the first floor of their homes.
‘Some of these residential burglars have been recorded going through second-story homes,’ Officer Jessica Cuchilla with Huntington Beach Police told the OC Register.
‘In these instances, the reason why they’re going in through there is because people don’t install alarm systems on their second story.’
Chilean Felipe Leiva Solis, 33, was apprehended multiple times last year after being suspected of being part of ‘an organized burglary ring responsible for a minimum of ten residential burglaries in Glendale,’ authorities said.
He was arrested alongside Abraham Pablo Herrera Montecino – AKA Juan Eduardo Salomon Castro – and Francisco Alegria Velasquez, two more members of the alleged crew.
One detective with the LAPD said in a court declaration that Leiva Solis was part of a crew linked to over 30 thefts in the West Los Angeles area alone, and saying he used a fake passport to open an account with Bank of America to wire $23,000 home.
Three other members of the alleged crew were found with over $1million in stolen apparel from a single burglary on December 27 in Beverly Hills.
‘I can tell you that we have a significant increase in burglaries from organized groups that are outside this country, that are coming into the country, and they are targeting high-end residents,’ LAPD Chief Dominic Choi said.
Chilean Felipe Leiva Solis, 33, was apprehended multiple times last year after being suspected of being part of ‘an organized burglary ring responsible for a minimum of ten residential burglaries in Glendale,’ authorities said
Solis Leiva was arrested alongside Abraham Pablo Herrera Montecino – AKA Juan Eduardo Salomon Castro (pictured left) – and Francisco Alegria Velasquez (pictured right), two more members of the alleged crew
The problem has been growing over the last five years, experts say. A home camera captured the moment a group of thieves, who police believe are ‘crime tourists’ from South America, robbed a San Francisco Bay area home in 2022
The thieves made of with bags full of stolen property and an SUV from the luxe home
Cameras at the home caught close-ups of two masked suspects at the front door
Leiva Solis is being held without bail ahead of a court appearance next week, having pled not guilty to three counts of burglary and one count of conspiracy to commit burglary.
Shep Bryan, owner of Maximum Security Safes in Santa Ana, said that these thieves have ‘changed what a typical burglary is.’
Bryan told the OC Register he’s had several clients ask them how to protect safes, which the criminals will use commercials to tear from bolted-down positions.
Nancy Silverberg, 69, came home to Laguna Hills on Valentine’s Day 2023 to see her door ‘gouged out’ and a hole in her patio roof, believing a thief to have tried to get to the second floor window before follow through the patio cover.
She reported $150,000 in jewelry and watches stolen, including what she called ‘sentimental pieces’ that cannot be replaced.
These burglars are suspected to use ladders, rain gutters, or stacked patio furniture to get into master bedrooms.
Christine, 55, who wouldn’t give her last name, said she came home one night in 2022 to her sliding door completely shattered.
Burglars had taken $25,000 in handbags, wallets and jewelry, adding she’s ‘never had anything like this’ in her ritzy Dana Point neighborhood.
Nancy Silverberg, 69, came home to Laguna Hills on Valentine’s Day 2023 to see her door ‘gouged out’ and a hole in her patio roof, believing a thief to have tried to get to the second floor window before follow through the patio cover
Christine, 55, who wouldn’t give her last name, said she came home one night in 2022 to her sliding door completely shattered. Burglars had taken $25,000 in handbags, wallets and jewelry, adding she’s ‘never had anything like this’ in her ritzy Dana Point neighborhood
The visiting criminals are emboldened by their discovery of a ‘sweet spot’ in the American criminal system because their offenses don’t meet the requirements for federal investigation, and are often overlooked.
What’s more, no cash or low bail law allow the repeat offenders endless opportunities to continue to the brazen heists, even after being caught.
After entering the country, they reportedly carry out strings of break-ins and other crimes, bringing home up to hundreds of millions of dollars in stolen goods, the FBI estimates.
FBI Special Agent Daniel Gimenez said members of a criminal tourist gang in Texas made between $20,000 to $100,000 per jobs.
In 2022, the FBI busted one of the groups in Virginia who exploited the state’s lax bail laws to steal more than $2 million in a string of burglaries targeting high-end homes of Asian and Middle Eastern families before skipping bail and fleeing back home.
The network of thieves were also connected to a series of burglaries at homes across the Carolinas, Georgia and Texas, as well as a $1.2 million jewelry heist in Southern California.
The FBI say the investigation began after a string of break-ins in homes in Fairfax County, near Washington DC. But they were unable to make any arrests.
The agency didn’t get its first real break in the case until two of the suspected criminals tied to the ring were discovered after their car broke down in a suburb in Atlanta, Georgia in 2019.
In more conservative Orange County, District Attorney Todd Spitzer has gone full boar on the crime tourists who have been behind hundreds of break-ins
The LAPD has followed the FBI’s lead and started a task force to combat the problem
Upon pulling over, a sheriff’s deputy questioned the two men, who were Puerto Rican. The two told the officer that they were heading back from one of the men’s girlfriend’s houses.
However, twigs stuck in one of the men’s clothing made the officer suspicious of their story, putting the pair on the local police’s radar.
The men, who were not arrested at the time, were later caught in a break-in attempt in the area, and were handed over to federal investigators who eventually linked them to the suspected syndicate.
The break in the case soon led investigators to a number of other burglars who used underhanded tactics like using jammers to block key fobs to break into cars, or cutting security systems and letting the batteries drain on back ups before looting stores.
Feds then arrested four thought to be involved with the syndicate: Mario Valencia Asprilla, Jhonny Valencia-Valencia, Diego Montano Chasoy and Freddy Hernandez Angulo. All four are Colombian and thought to be behind the Fairfax robberies, police said.
A fifth member of the group, Josue Rodriguez Rolon, was also arrested in June. It remains unclear how any of the suspects came to enter the country.
With that said, Rolon has since been freed on bond, and is now considered a fugitive, court documents reveal. Montano Chasoy, meanwhile, was deported, but the other three remain in custody.
All three are scheduled to stand trial this year in Fairfax court on multiple burglary charges and other counts.
Detectives said Asian and Middle Eastern homeowners were targeted because the thieves believe that people of those cultures keep a lot of high value jewelry at home and have cash-oriented businesses.
Dan Heath, a supervisory special agent with the FBI’s criminal investigations division, said ‘South American theft groups,’ are a growing plague throughout the United States – and in countries including India , Britain and , where they often employ similar tactics.
In January 2022, British authorities took down dozens of crime tourists from Chile who stole more than $200,000 in a spring of robberies across the UK.
Police in Fischer, Indiana, also reported a series of home burglaries targeting expensive jewelry believed to be linked to criminal tourists.
‘A lot of these burglaries have been targeted specifically around jewelry, so more high-end homes, their jewelry is stored out in the open and they can be really high-valued items,’ Fischer Officer Jessica Stout told Fox 59.
Police in Nassau County, New York arrested their own band of criminal tourists in March of that year after police caught six men, all from Chile, breaking into a wealthy home, stealing thousands of dollars in jewelry and cash.