Staff Reports
The Los Angeles Police Department has taken bold action in the face of a surge in home burglaries by Latin American crime groups targeting the opulent residents of Southern California. LAPD Chief Dominic Choi revealed that these organized groups from foreign lands have been sneaking into the country to pilfer from the high-end homeowners. To combat this alarming trend, the LAPD has ramped up efforts with a special task force, joining forces with multiple agencies to crack down on this nefarious activity.
On the department’s X account, the LAPD announced collaboration with other affected agencies in response to the audacious crimes perpetrated by these foreign burglary syndicates. Not only have these criminal infiltrators plundered residences in Los Angeles, but they have also spread their reign of theft to Orange, Ventura, San Diego, and Santa Barbara counties. The LAPD’s Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton unveiled that the primary perpetrators hail from Chile, with a growing presence from Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia. While there may be a decrease in general robbery incidents, the surge in crimes linked to these criminal teams has skyrocketed, Hamilton emphasized.
Los Angeles county residents are being terrorized 24 hours a day by the Los Angeles police department (@LAPDHQ) that is utilizing helicopters to cause excessive noise pollution over our communities from sun up to sun down. This is literally state funded terrorism. #KarenBass https://t.co/wAPYEyDOy6 pic.twitter.com/Vx0GyK3Clc
— How The West Was Saved (@HowTheWestWS) March 20, 2024
What’s more, these foreign malefactors are exploiting tourist visas, evading background checks, to brazenly carry out their illicit activities in California. The visa waiver bestowed upon certain countries in 2014 was intended to facilitate tourism but has unwittingly opened the floodgates for these foreign criminals to exploit the system and wreak havoc on affluent communities. This insidious “burglary tourism” scheme, largely orchestrated by Chileans, has been festering for the past five years, a distressing trend highlighted by the Los Angeles Times.
District Attorney Todd Spitzer from Orange County has been vocal in his call for preventative measures to impede these criminal tourist entries. However, prosecutors are handcuffed by their inability to access the criminal history of these Chilean tourists, rendering them powerless in the face of these brazen criminals’ exploits. It is evident that urgent action is needed to safeguard the residents of Southern California from the clutches of these foreign criminal elements infiltrating the state under the guise of tourism.
