Sophisticated South American Crime Tourists Hit with Charges for Jewelry Heists
When Glendale Police arrived to a small mom-and-pop jewelry store that had just been cleaned out on a Tuesday afternoon in late May, there was no sign of forced entry, at first, until they looked up. The sophisticated thieves had burrowed through the roof of Bidrussian Jewelry located at 1102 ½ S. Glendale Avenue and made off with what police are calling an "unknown amount of jewelry" and fled into the night. During the robbery, the thieves used cell phone jammers so no one could call police, which also left people unable to call emergency services for other issues, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Thursday. Glendale Detectives assigned to the burglary division launched an investigation, worked sources and pressed known fences, and came up with likely suspects: a professional robbery crew from South America, part of a recent and growing surge of criminals from outside the U.S. who come to L.A. as "crime tourists" with plans to steal.
Last summer, a similar crew was locked up for a brazen stickup right out of a Hollywood action flick: the robbers pointed a gun at a tourist eating lunch with his family at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons and demanded his Rolex, one of many gunpoint watch heists the Venezuelans pulled off as tourists to L.A. There have been so many crimes that fit the pattern, that the streets were talking about a new crew that was planning to break into another small jewelry store in La Verne. Glendale Police puts it this way, detectives "developed leads identifying possible suspects. Working in coordination with local agencies, detectives initiated surveillance on the group." And when they showed up at their next target, Rodeo Jewelers, located at 1560 Foothill Boulevard in the City of La Verne, in the dead of night last Sunday, police were waiting, surveilling, ready to pounce. Once again, police say, "the suspects also used signal jammers and cut wires to the location," to prevent surveillance or 911 calls from anyone who saw them in action. Once they were in, they were nabbed, police and prosecutors say. 'To those involved in organized crime targeting businesses in Los Angeles County: No matter how carefully planned your crimes may be, you will be identified, apprehended, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,' Hochman said. 'Not only do these reckless crimes threaten livelihoods and instill fear in communities, but attempts to avoid detection by disabling emergency services put millions of lives at risk. This will not be tolerated under my watch.'The men charged are: Jose Millafil; Luka Pazitiani; Javier Sepulveda; Matias Vera; Victor Iturriagalopez; Edson Gonzalez; and Cristian Gonzalezaburto. They are all charged with multiple felonies for burglarizing two jewelry stores and causing extensive infrastructure damage.
This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on Jul 6, 2025, where it first appeared.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
5 hours ago
- The Hill
El Salvador: Detained migrants are responsibility of US
The government of El Salvador has formally asserted it is the U.S., not the Central American nation, that retains 'legal responsibility' for Venezuelans held in one of their megaprisons, contracting Trump administration claims. The disclosure was made to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and submitted in court filings by those challenging President Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act to send some 200 Venezuelan men to be held in the country's most notorious prison. 'The jurisdiction and legal responsibility for these persons lie exclusively with the competent foreign authorities, by virtue of international agreements signed and in accordance with the principles of sovereignty and international cooperation in criminal matters,' El Salvador said, referring to the U.S. The comments are at odds with statements given by White House and Department of Justice (DOJ) officials, who have claimed they cannot seek the return of the men, as they are now in the custody of the Salvadoran government. 'El Salvador has confirmed what we and everyone else understood: it is the United States that controls what happens to the Venezuelans languishing at CECOT. Remarkably the U.S. government didn't provide this information to us or the court,' American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawyer Lee Gelernt, who is representing some of the men, said in an email. The filing from the ACLU seeks to order additional discovery in the case and argues the Trump administration violated its obligation to share information about its arrangement with El Savlador. In a meeting in the White House with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, President Trump said it was up to the Salvadoran leader whether to release a man who was the subject of another case — mistakenly deported man Kilmar Abrego Garcia. And in court, the Trump administration has argued they were powerless in any effort to secure the return of the men, saying they were beyond the reach of the U.S. legal system and that their fate rests with El Salvador. The Trump administration in mid-March deported Venezuelans to the infamous CECOT prison, known by its acronym in Spanish, as well as some Salvadorans. A DOJ whistleblower has accused principal associate deputy attorney general Emil Bove of suggesting the department may need to defy court orders grounding flights set to deport men under the Alien Enemies Act. The Trump administration has agreed to pay El Salvador $15 million to imprison the men, according to Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who shared the figure after traveling to El Salvador to meet with government officials as well as Abrego Garcia.
6 hours ago
Migrants deported from US to Salvadoran prison remain under US control, Salvadoran officials tell UN
WASHINGTON -- The government of El Salvador has acknowledged to United Nations investigators that the Trump administration maintains control of the Venezuelan men who were deported from the U.S. to a notorious Salvadoran prison, contradicting public statements by officials in both countries. The revelation was contained in court filings Monday by lawyers for more than 100 migrants who are seeking to challenge their deportations to El Salvador's mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. The case is among several challenging President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. 'In this context, the jurisdiction and legal responsibility for these persons lie exclusively with the competent foreign authorities,' Salvadoran officials wrote in response to queries from the unit of the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The U.N. group has been looking into the fate of the men who were sent to El Salvador from the United States in mid-March, even after a U.S. judge had ordered the planes that were carrying them to be turned around. The Trump administration has argued that it is powerless to return the men, noting that they are beyond the reach of U.S. courts and no longer have access to due process rights or other U.S. constitutional guarantees. But lawyers for the migrants said the U.N. report shows otherwise. 'El Salvador has confirmed what we and everyone else understood: it is the United States that controls what happens to the Venezuelans languishing at CECOT. Remarkably the U.S. government didn't provide this information to us or the court,' American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Lee Gelernt said in an email. Skye Perryman, CEO and president of Democracy Forward, said the documents show 'that the administration has not been honest with the court or the American people.' The ACLU and Democracy Forward are both representing the migrants. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment. White House and Homeland Security Department officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The administration in March agreed to pay $6 million for El Salvador to house 300 migrants. The deal sparked immediate controversy when Trump invoked an 18th century wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, to quickly remove men it has accused of being members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. In a related case, the administration mistakenly sent Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the same prison, despite a judge's order prohibiting the Maryland man from being sent to El Salvador. The administration initially resisted court orders to bring him back to the U.S., saying he was no longer in American custody. Eventually, Abrego Garcia was returned to the U.S., where he now faces criminal charges of human smuggling while legal battles continue. Last month, a coalition of immigrant rights groups sued to invalidate the prison deal with El Salvador, arguing that the arrangement to move migrant detainees outside the reach of U.S. courts violates the Constitution.
Chicago Tribune
11 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Daniel DePetris: The strife in Ecuador, Mexico and Haiti is easy to miss in our frenetic news cycle
The international news cycle proceeds at such a fast pace these days that we tend to miss some of the significant stories that are bubbling beneath the surface. Many come from the Western Hemisphere, known as America's backyard. Compared to regions such as Europe and the Middle East, the Western Hemisphere seems like a relatively peaceful place. There is no state-on-state conflict, the insurgent groups that proliferated throughout the area during the Cold War are pretty much gone and, to the extent there is competition, it's largely about trade and economics. But that doesn't mean the Western Hemisphere is a peaceful oasis. Indeed, there is plenty of conflict happening within states in the region, nearly all powered by a combination of corrupt governance, a lack of state authority and substate entities that have the wealth, firepower and reach to make the lives of ordinary people hell. Three states in particular are getting the worst of it: Ecuador, Mexico and Haiti. Of all the countries on this list, Ecuador's descent into drug-infested warfare is the most dramatic. The small South American country along the Pacific used to be one of Latin America's most peaceful countries, a place where scores of Americans would vacation. Today, however, it's one of the most violent, spurred by a constellation of gangs and narcotrafficking organizations that team up with Colombian and Mexican cartels to ship cocaine into the United States; 2024 was the second-most violent year in the country's history, with nearly 7,000 homicides. This year hasn't been much better; at almost 1,000 homicides, this May was the deadliest month in Ecuador on record. The Ecuadorian government under reelected President Daniel Noboa has been flailing in response. The millennial commander-in-chief, whose past campaign was prefaced on restoring security to the country, has chosen an iron-fisted approach. In January 2024, shortly after resuming office, he declared a national emergency and a war against narcotraffickers. Soldiers are now on the streets doing work of police. Last month, the National Assembly approved a constitutional reform that would give more powers to the state, in effect codifying Noboa's state of emergency and allowing security forces to conduct raids without warrants. Noboa has even lobbied the Donald Trump administration to deploy U.S. troops into the country to assist his war on drugs. Mexico is no stranger to cartel violence. In fact, Mexico's homicide rate, at more than 30,000, makes Ecuador's look paltry. If Ecuador's narcotrafficking war is a relatively new phenomenon for the country's security landscape, Mexico's is well established and ever present. While the Sinaloa and New Jalisco Generation cartels get the most attention in the United States, there are dozens of other regional and local criminal syndicates that either partner with these two cartels or are attempting to strike gold on their own. The Mexican state of Sinaloa continues to be in a state of de facto civil war as the Sinaloa Cartel's two major factions, one led by the sons of former drug lord Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán, battle it out for the spoils. Violence in Mexico has gotten only worse. With the exception of Andres Manuel López Obrador, who as president started his tenure with a less militarized approach to combating the cartels, successive Mexican administrations have bought into the 'war on drugs' framing. The assumption was that deploying the Mexican army on the streets and taking out senior cartel leadership would result in those organizations collapsing. But the opposite has happened; the cartels adapted or splintered into smaller groups that now fight each other for territory and trafficking routes — producing more violence and stretching the limited capacities of the Mexican army. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is opting for a more intelligence-driven strategy, but it's too soon to tell whether the results will be different. It's Haiti that is by far the most hopeless case. The country hasn't had an elected president since 2021, when Jovenel Moïse was assassinated. There aren't any elected lawmakers in the assembly either; its interim prime minister, the wildly unpopular Ariel Henry, resigned last year when he couldn't get back into Haiti after the gangs shut down the airports. Speaking of the gangs, they control approximately 90% of the capital city. The transitional governing council, which is supposed to serve as an interim government, is instead a feckless body riven by internecine fighting between various personalities and interest groups. Haitian officials are at a loss for answers and have resorted to desperate measures, such as teaming up with Erik Prince, whose Blackwater mercenary group gained a poor reputation during the U.S. occupation of Iraq. The Haitian security forces, or what's left of them, are now using drones to target gang leaders, although none have been killed. Meanwhile, Haitians are taking the law into their own hands by establishing self-defense groups; some have turned into vigilantes that are no better than the gangs they are meant to fight. If Haiti hasn't reached anarchy, then it's close. What responsibility does Washington, D.C., have to ameliorate these crises? Some will argue a lot. After all, most of the firearms that make their way to Mexico and Haiti come from the United States. In the long run, though, the United States can't force foreign governments to change their policies and practices. And that's what's required here.
