Suspects dressed in black have broken into homes in cul-de-sacs and residences near golf courses, stealing cash, jewelry, and other expensive items as organized theft groups are known to do, Fox News reported Monday.
Earlier this month, officials with the Mequon Police Department (MPD) held a regional intelligence-sharing meeting with other law enforcement agencies around southeastern Wisconsin regarding the issue.
“Investigators are working with the Wisconsin Department of Justice and the state crime lab to process evidence and cross-reference incidents across jurisdictions,” the Fox article read. “Officials said the burglaries show hallmarks of South American theft groups (SATGs) known to operate across the U.S., though no suspects have yet been identified.”
Trail cameras in Mequon showed several individuals walking through wooded areas, per WISN. The groups are said to approach homes from the backyards then break into the houses through a door or window:
Mequon Police Operations Commander John Hoell told Fox the way the suspects are dressed, the items they steal, and how they carry out the burglaries appears to be a pattern.
Hoell told WISN that investigators realized it was not a local group and not something that was happening only in the Milwaukee area, but “this is happening throughout the state and throughout the United States.”
“Basically, what we know is that they’re from South America, and that they’re coming up here to commit these crimes. Our belief that there’s a larger group. This is a very well put-together group of people. They come with tools. They do everything the same way every single time they commit these burglaries,” he added.
One Mequon resident told TMJ4 she was shocked after her house was targeted as the thefts continued.
“I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe the destruction and how rapidly they had done this,” Lynne Langlois recalled. She added, “I couldn’t believe that it had happened to us, I mean, Mequon is so safe.”
It appears similar instances have been happening for the past few years. In 2023, two illegal aliens connected to a South American theft ring were accused of robbing a jewelry store in Gulf Shores, Alabama, Breitbart News reported.
The following year, police targeted a group of Chilean illegals linked to several burglaries across the southern United States and east coast, and a crime ring in Latin America.
Also in 2024, Breitbart News reported, “The police chief of a Minneapolis suburb in Democrat Gov. Tim Walz’s Minnesota is warning residents that a ‘South American crime ring’ has been targeting high-end homes in the area.”
In a statement to Fox regarding the burglaries, Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI), who is running for governor, criticized former President Joe Biden’s (D) administration for its disastrous immigration policies that have hurt American communities.
“This is what Democrats invited into our country under the last four years of Joe Biden, and not one Democrat running for governor will condemn it or demand these criminals be removed,” Tiffany stated. “I have spent years on the House Judiciary Committee fighting for stronger border security, including ending catch-and-release, stopping parole abuse, and dismantling foreign criminal networks, and I’m grateful we finally have a president taking this crisis seriously and federal agencies working overtime to get criminals off our streets.”
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