ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (news agencies) — Seven men from Chile have been charged in Florida federal court with orchestrating burglaries at the homes of prominent professional athletes around the country, according to a criminal complaint.
The FBI complaint doesn’t name the athletes, but lists burglaries already made public involving the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals, as well as players for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and Memphis Grizzlies.
According to the complaint, the defendants are part of a burglary ring that “is known to target high-profile professional athletes when they are known to be away from home.” The men allegedly stole about $2 million in watches, jewelry, cash and other valuables, including a safe they later cracked.
Each defendant is charged with conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property, which carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence. It wasn’t clear Wednesday whether they are in custody, and Tampa federal court records don’t list attorneys for any of them.
The defendants are listed as Pablo Zuniga Cartes, 24; Ignacio Zuniga Cartes, 20; Bastian Jimenez Freraut, 27; Jordan Quiroga Sanchez, 22; Bastian Orellano Morales, 23; Alexander Huiaguil Chavez, 24; and Sergio Ortega Cabello, 38. Although the FBI identifies them as Chilean in the charging documents, it doesn’t say whether any or all of them are also U.S. citizens or are legally in the country.
Some were arrested in January after a traffic stop in Ohio on state charges for allegedly breaking into the home of Burrow, the Bengals’ quarterback. The federal charges in Tampa were filed Jan. 30.
Much of the evidence outlined in the FBI complaint is from cellphone data, surveillance video and license plate readers that allegedly place the defendants in the vicinity of the burglaries. They typically used crude methods such a breaking windows or prying open sliding glass doors with crowbars.
The burglars, according to the FBI affidavit, “will approach the residences from cover such as, but not limited to, a wooded or dark area” before breaking into the homes. One unnamed Tampa Bay Buccaneers player had about $167,000 in property stolen, including a Rolex watch, a Luis Vuitton suitcase, jewelry and a gun.
One player whose home was robbed, Bobby Portis of the Milwaukee Bucks, said at practice Wednesday that it was good to know some arrests had been made.
“With that being said, you put all you can into the game, and then you come home and all your belongings are gone — things that you worked hard for. It’s kind of gratifying that these guys have been caught, obviously, because you work so hard for your things,” Portis said.
The group also took photos of themselves with some of the loot, which the FBI included in the criminal complaint. In one case, a suspect is seen wearing a Kansas City Chiefs shirt. The groups often will separate into smaller units to commit multiple burglaries, according to the FBI.
“However, though burglary groups may consist of four or five members, these separate groups often work in concert with one another, communicate with one another and (use) the same buyers of stolen merchandise,” the FBI affidavit says.
news agencies Sports Writer Steve Megargee in Milwaukee contributed to this story.
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