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2024-03-18 -Lurid Crime Tales-
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LA battles spate of 'burglary tourists' as marauding gangs from Chile, Ecuador Colombia and Peru jet in on 90-day visas and ransack millionaire mansions before fleeing back to South America
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[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] - The LAPD has launched a task force to combat the threat of 'burglary tourists'
- Internationals from South America have abused American visa laws to steal
- Some have been accused of over 30 robberies throughout southern California
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.
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.
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.
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Posted by Skidmark 2024-03-18 07:58||
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Posted by Grom the Reflective 2024-03-18 09:51||
2024-03-18 09:51||
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Posted by Super Hose 2024-03-18 10:48||
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Posted by Procopius2k 2024-03-18 11:40||
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Posted by Bobby 2024-03-18 15:00||
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Posted by badanov 2024-03-18 19:52||
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08:29 Grom the Reflective
08:25 Super Hose
08:25 NN2N1
08:23 ed in texas
08:21 ed in texas
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08:18 MikeKozlowski
08:17 NN2N1
08:15 Super Hose
08:14 ed in texas
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07:48 M. Murcek
07:33 Procopius2k
07:32 Besoeker
07:32 NN2N1
07:30 NN2N1
07:29 Grom the Reflective
07:22 Grom the Reflective
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07:17 M. Murcek
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