Border crisis fallout: Midwest prosecutions of SATG crime ongoing

After a record number of border crimes were reported during the Biden administration, criminal investigations and prosecutions are ongoing. 

In the Midwest, prosecutors are also hoping to put behind bars alleged members of a South American Theft Group who were allegedly targeting residents in the Green Bay area.

As the Biden administration border crisis worsened, law enforcement across the country identified a pattern occurring nationwide: high-end burglaries being committed by foreign perpetrators targeting specific communities and then quickly leaving.

The Center Square first reported on the new phenomenon of SATG burglaries in late 2023 after NFL players’ homes were being increasingly targeted in multiple states. By January 2024, authorities in Texas were responding to a string of SATG crimes and authorities in New York expressed alarm, testifying before Congress. 

SATG crime is being orchestrated by Chilean and Columbian nationals who illegally enter the U.S. and/or exploited visa programs, authorities have found. They frequently use rental vehicles, rely on fake IDs and documents and use multiple burner phones and signal jammers to evade capture, the FBI says. They sell the stolen goods, send some of it to Chile or Colombia and wire most of the profits overseas, the FBI found.

In the Green Bay case, the alleged perpetrators were in the country illegally and citizens of Chile with assistance from a Venezuelan national illegally living in Florida, authorities found.

On Tuesday, a federal grand jury in Eastern Wisconsin indicted three Chilean nationals, Luciano Alexis Silva Cifuentes, Enjerbet Alejandro Rojas Silva, and Leandro Felipe Pino Uribe, and one Venezuelan national, Nobuaki Jesus Lara Watay. They were charged with conspiracy to violate the laws of the United States, interstate and foreign transportation of stolen property, and conspiracy to launder criminal proceeds, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin announced. 

According to the charges, they used Wi-Fi jammers to disable security systems and targeted homes bordered by wooded areas, according to court documents. The Chileans were arrested four months ago in Waukesha County, held on a $250,000 bond, and had U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer holds placed on them.

The Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office led a multi-agency investigation and found the perpetrators illegally entered the U.S. from South America with the intent of committing burglaries across the country, according to the complaint. They also found the men were allegedly tied to more than a dozen completed and attempted residential burglaries in three states: Florida, Minnesota and Wisconsin. They also found the perpetrators allegedly stole more than $1 million worth of U.S. currency, jewelry, firearms, precious metals, and rare coins. 

The Chilean suspects repeatedly traveled from Florida to Wisconsin and Minnesota using a rental car, investigators said. Watay helped organize the break-ins from Florida, where he was illegally living, investigators found. He “reserved Airbnb rentals for the burglary crew, posted their bail when needed, and conducted financial transactions on the group’s behalf,” investigators found.

If convicted on all charges, they face decades in prison. 

The sheriff’s offices of Brown, Dane and Ozaukee counties and Mequon Police Department in Wisconsin; police departments of Edina, Mendota Heights and Orono in Minnesota; Plantation Police Department in Florida, and North Central High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area were involved in the investigation. 

The Milwaukee area Homeland Security Task Force, including the DOJ, FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and IRS–Criminal Investigation were also involved in the investigation. 

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin is prosecuting the case.