ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A criminal complaint filed in a federal court in Florida has accused seven individuals from Chile of planning burglaries targeting the residences of well-known professional athletes around the nation.
The FBI complaint mentions burglaries that have already been made public involving players from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and Memphis Grizzlies, the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, and the Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow, but it does not name the athletes.
The defendants are allegedly involved in a burglary ring that preys on well-known professional athletes while they are known to be away from home, according to the complaint. According to reports, the men grabbed over $2 million worth of cash, jewels, watches, and other valuables, including a safe that they later broke into.
Each defendant faces a potential sentence of 10 years in jail for conspiring to carry stolen property across state lines. Whether they are in custody was unclear on Wednesday, and none of them had attorneys listed in Tampa federal court records.
Sergio Ortega Cabello, 38; Jordan Quiroga Sanchez, 22; Bastian Orellano Morales, 23; Alexander Huiaguil Chavez, 24; Pablo Zuniga Cartes, 24; Ignacio Zuniga Cartes, 20; and Bastian Jimenez Freraut, 27 are the defendants on the list. Despite identifying them as Chilean in the charging documents, the FBI does not specify whether any of them are citizens of the United States or are in the country lawfully.
Following a car stop in Ohio in January, some were taken into custody on state charges for allegedly breaking into the Bengals quarterback Burrow’s house. In that instance, a court affidavit filed in Clark County, Ohio, revealed that four of the guys were in the country illegally.
On January 30, federal charges were filed in Tampa.
Cellphone data, security footage, and license plate readers that purport to locate the defendants near the burglaries provide a large portion of the evidence described in the FBI complaint. They usually employed rudimentary techniques like smashing windows or using crowbars to pry open sliding glass doors.
According to the FBI affidavit, the thieves will approach the properties from a cover place, such as a dark or forested area, before breaking in. A revolver, jewels, a Luis Vuitton luggage, and a Rolex watch were among the approximately $167,000 worth of stolen stuff belonging to an unidentified Tampa Bay Buccaneers player.
Bobby Portis of the Milwaukee Bucks, one player whose house was broken into, said at practice on Wednesday that it was encouraging to see some arrests had been made.
That being said, you give the game your all, and when you return home, everything you’ve worked so hard to get is gone. Because you work so hard for your possessions, it’s kind of satisfying that these guys have been apprehended, Portis added.
The FBI included the group’s self-portraits with some of the loot in the criminal complaint. A suspect is spotted sporting a Kansas City Chiefs shirt in one instance. According to the FBI, the gangs frequently split up into smaller sections to carry out several burglaries.
However, according to the FBI complaint, even though burglary gangs may have four or five people, these disparate organizations frequently collaborate, communicate, and (use) the same customers of stolen goods.
— Associated Press’s Curt Anderson
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Contributions came from Toledo, Ohio-based AP writer John Seewer and Milwaukee-based AP sports writer Steve Megargee.
