Seven people have been charged in connection with a surge in residential burglaries in the San Fernando Valley carried out by “brazen, calculated and predatory” crews of thieves, authorities said.
The suspects are accused of participating in at least 20 home burglaries, making off with wallets, high-end handbags, watches, jewelry and more, according to the L.A. County district attorney’s office.
“These defendants are accused of prowling neighborhoods, smashing their way into homes and stealing from families who were left shaken and violated,” said Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman in a statement.
Although organized burglary crews targeting residential homes is a longstanding problem in Los Angeles, there was an upswing in incidents in the San Fernando Valley and surrounding areas last month, with thieves striking nine homes in a one-week period alone. In response, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass directed the Los Angeles Police Department to increase patrols along Ventura Boulevard, a hotspot for burglaries.
L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna said the recently arrested suspects conducted extensive research of properties and attempted to conceal their crimes using burner phones and cars rented under fraudulent identities.
Luna, at a news conference Wednesday, noted that organized burglary crews “are increasingly targeting affluent neighborhoods and often select homes near golf courses, parks and hiking trails and open space areas that provide easier access and escape routes.”
Last month, L.A. Police Chief Jim McDonnell said that many of these residential burglaries are tied to theft rings from South America as well as groups based in South L.A. He said crews use similar tools such as hidden cameras to determine when residents leave their homes, Wi-Fi jammers to disrupt home security systems and ladders to get inside homes through second-floor windows.
The LAPD, L.A. County Sheriff’s Department and Ventura County Sheriff’s Department worked collaboratively to apprehend the seven alleged thieves.
Byron Gonzálo Sáez Sotomayor is accused of burglarizing or attempting to burglarize 18 homes in the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles, often targeting multiple residences in a single evening, prosecutors said. He was arrested while allegedly fleeing from a burglary in the Beverlywood area on May 4.
The 27-year-old has pleaded not guilty to 15 counts of residential burglary, three counts of attempted residential burglary and one count of grand theft of a firearm. He is being held in lieu of $1.4-million bail and faces 26 years in state prison if convicted as charged.
Christopher Sanchez, 26, Owen Rivera-Chacon, 24, and Edisson Fabian Boyaca, 27, were arrested May 1 during a surveillance operation into the suspected burglary crew in Santa Clarita, prosecutors said. They have each been charged with one felony count of residential burglary, and Rivera-Chacon faces allegations of a prior-strike conviction for residential burglary.
They have all pleaded not guilty. If convicted as charged, Sanchez and Boyaca each face six years in state prison, while Rivera-Chacon faces 17 years in state prison.
The final three alleged thieves — identified as Wilmar Santiago Castelblanco-Robles, 20, Alan Rolando Rodriguez-Pulido, 34, and Cristian Rios-Cuadros, 24, — were arrested April 26 when neighbors saw Rios-Cuadros and Castelblanco-Robles breaking into a Burbank home and called police, prosecutors said. The pair fled on foot, police said, and were apprehended by officers, while Rodriguez-Pulido was arrested nearby while driving a suspected getaway vehicle.
They are each charged with one felony county of residential burglary and face six years in state prison if convicted as charged. Castelblanco-Robles and Rios-Cuadros pleaded not guilty, while Rodriguez-Pulido is scheduled for a mental competency hearing June 16.
“Residential burglaries strike at the heart of people’s sense of safety, and we are responding with precision, urgency, and coordination,” said McDonnell in a statement Wednesday. “The LAPD will continue to pursue organized burglary crews relentlessly until our neighborhoods are secure.”
Staff writers Rong-Gong Lin II and Salvador Hernandez contributed to this report.
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