The seven Chilean burglars who targeted Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Joe Burrow and others over three months late last year made some rookie mistakes that allowed the law to eventually catch up, the FBI says.
The seven Chilean burglars who targeted Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Joe Burrow and others over three months late last year made some rookie mistakes that allowed the law to eventually catch up, the FBI says.
According to the FBI, burglars who recently targeted famous athletes such as Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Joe Burrow bounced from city to city using cars they rented with fake IDs. They ditched the cars as needed, along with the burner phones they used to coordinate with one another.
They would hide in woods while monitoring the patterns of security guards, then break into the homes of wealthy athletes by breaking small windows or prying open sliding doors before converting jewel-encrusted watches, designer bags, gold chains and rings into cash, using loot launderers far from their victims.
Their booty had an estimated value of about $3 million, taken from some of America’s best-known athletes.
But the seven Chilean burglars who targeted the star athletes over three months late last year also made some rookie mistakes that allowed law enforcement to eventually catch up, as detailed in a 20-page affidavit included in a federal criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday.
In the document, the FBI lays out how the gang members were undone by allegedly posting photos for co-conspirators to see via an iCloud site.
Images obtained and released by the FBI show three of the alleged burglars, along with an unidentified fourth man, posing with watches apparently stolen from the home of Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis Jr. Largely because of the images, the men are in federal custody and have been charged with conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property. They could face up to 10 years in prison.
The Chilean gang “is known to travel throughout the United States and burglarize residences belonging to popular and well-known professional athletes” from the NFL, NBA and NHL, the criminal complaint says. The gang “is responsible for stealing jewelry, expensive brand watches, United States currency, and other high-value merchandise.”
The gang’s methods included dividing “responsibilities to each member such as renting vehicles, obtaining hotels or short-stay rentals, acquiring fraudulent identification and contacting ‘fences’ (buyers) of the stolen merchandise,” the complaint, which was filed Jan. 30 in Florida, states.
Police closed in on a New York pawn shop, allegedly connected to the ring, earlier this month.
Key to the burglars’ success, up to now, has been an ability to monitor not only their victims’ schedules but also the activities of police investigators and security teams watching over the athletes’ homes, the affidavit says.
The FBI hasn’t identified the athletes by name, but the dates and locations listed in the criminal complaint coincide with well-publicized burglaries at the Kansas City-area homes of Mahomes and Kelce, as well as the homes of Portis in Milwaukee and Burrow in Anderson Township, Ohio. The complaint also lists two unidentified athletes, one from the Memphis Grizzlies and another from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Mahomes and Kelce were the first known victims, in early October, one of them during the Oct. 7 “Monday Night Football” game against the New Orleans Saints at Arrowhead Stadium. The unnamed Bucs player was targeted on Oct. 21 during a contest against the Baltimore Ravens. Portis’ home was struck Nov. 2 in Milwaukee during a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Burrow’s home in the Cincinnati area was burglarized during a Dec. 9 game at the Dallas Cowboys. And the unnamed Grizzlies player’s home was burglarized during a Dec. 19 home contest against the Golden State Warriors.
No information is provided regarding possible NHL victims identified by the FBI, or additional NBA victims, but close to the time of the Kansas City burglaries, the Dallas Stars‘ Tyler Seguin reported a home break-in, with watches valued at $500,000 reportedly taken. In December, an estimated $23,000 in jewelry was stolen from Luka Doncic‘s Dallas home before a trade sent the Mavericks star to Los Angeles. It’s not clear if authorities believe the Chilean gang is behind the Seguin and Doncic heists.
The FBI agent who submitted the affidavit, whose name is blacked out, ascribes high levels of sophistication to the seven defendants for the way they identified their targets, found vulnerabilities in home security systems and figured out how to convert the high-value loot into cash through “fences.” The men allegedly used fake IDs, multiple rental cars and burner phones to keep from being tracked as they traveled across the country between burglaries.
At the same time, the agent identified a series of blunders that helped law enforcers identify the culprits and, crucially, connect them directly to many of the stolen items. The mistakes included a series of selfies that the alleged burglars, according to the complaint, apparently shared with others as if to advertise their exploits. They uploaded the photos to a secure Apple iCloud account, but the FBI was able to access it with a search warrant.
In one particularly lucrative burglary, apparently the one at Portis’ home, gang members broke open a safe “containing several watches, chains, personal items, jewelry, and cash. Also stolen was a Louis Vuitton suitcase and designer bags.” The total value of the items exceeded $1.48 million, the complaint says, identifying the victim only as “Athlete 4.”
On Nov. 3, Portis posted on X: “I consider Milwaukee my home. Last night, while I was at work, my home was burglarized, and many of my prized possessions were stolen. If you have any tips or info, please send them to info@bobbyportis.com. Rewards for info leading to recovery or arrests!”
Referring to the Nov. 2 burglary, the complaint includes a color selfie photo of four men, one wearing a Chiefs jersey, inside what appears to be a hotel room. On the floor is a broken-open safe, along with an array of eight watches, plus a bejeweled watch that one of the suspects, the selfie photographer, is wearing.
The face of one person is blacked out because the FBI has yet to identify him. In a second photo, the selfie photographer prominently displays the watch on his left wrist along with various luxury items arrayed on a bed. Also on the bed is a yellow crowbar.
That same burglary also was notable for the security camera video that Portis posted online showing two men at the house’s front door, with their heads and faces covered. They hesitate while one speaks on a cellphone. Then he says to the other in Spanish, “Go for it.” The second one kneels and uses a power tool on a panel near the base of the door.
On Feb. 5, a federal grand jury in Ohio indicted three of the men in connection with the Nov. 2 burglary. “The individuals seem to be the alleged tip of the iceberg” in a string of crimes, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Ohio stated.
In the Dec. 19 burglary in Memphis, the defendants allegedly netted an estimated $1 million in unidentified items from the home of a person identified only as “Athlete 6.”
The case of the Bengals’ Burrow drew particular attention after the burglary of his home on Dec. 9. “My privacy has been violated in more ways than one,” Burrow told reporters at the time.
The unsealed complaint, identifying Burrow only as “Athlete 5,” listed the value of items stolen at around $300,000. Some of those items were identified recently at a New York City pawn shop, and both the shop owner and an employee have been charged with conspiring to receive stolen property.
In late January, some of the suspects were halted in their Florida rental car by police on an Ohio highway. Body cam video from the Ohio Highway Patrol showed one of the men wearing a Bengals stocking cap. The men didn’t speak English, so when an officer asked them in Spanish where they were headed, they answered, “Orlando.”
“Wrong direction,” the officer responded. A person in the back seat then changed his destination to New York, then back to Florida. During a search of the car, an officer found a pouch hidden behind the glove box, and inside were two tools that another officer later identified as “window punches.” They also found a yellow crowbar.
They were arrested shortly afterward.
Burrow had employed a security team to patrol his house while the Bengals were in Texas, but the complaint describes the burglars as having tracked not only the athlete’s movements but also those of his home security team. The defendants allegedly monitored the times when shift changes occurred and when the security personnel would move between the back and front of the home.
The complaint describes the burglars as being bold enough to stealthily enter the back of the house without breaking any windows while the security detail was standing in the driveway. The defendants allegedly monitored the detail’s movements “from a wooded area where no security cameras were located,” the complaint states.
The FBI agent describes using a number of high-tech tactics to zero in on the alleged burglars, including license-plate reader data from local police at various locations on the defendants’ routes. They also used cellphone tower data to co-locate one or more defendants’ phones with their rental vehicles. The same rental vehicle was identified as having been in Cincinnati and Jeffersonville, Indiana, before being abandoned at a McDonald’s in Miami.
The seven defendants are identified as Pablo Zuniga Cartes, Ignacio Zuniga Cartes, Bastian Jimenez Freraut, Alexander Huiaguil Chavez, Jordan Quiroga Sanchez, Bastian Orellano Morales and Sergio Ortego Cabello. The latter three, all identified in the selfie photo released with the complaint, also were named in the Feb. 5 indictment in Ohio.
ESPN researcher John Mastroberardino contributed to this report.
Discover more from World Byte News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
