Seven men are facing federal criminal charges for burglarizing homes of professional athletes, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida unsealed a criminal complaint originally filed Jan. 30 against the individuals, who face up to 10 years in federal prison.
Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Joe Burrow are some of the professional athletes whose homes law enforcement believe were burglarized by these men. A photo investigators say is of the men shows one of them wearing a Chiefs shirt, while others pose with watches stolen from the home of Bobby Portis, Jr., of the Bucks.
Pablo Zuniga Cartes, Ignacio Zuniga Cartes, Bastian Jimenez Freraut, Jordan Quiroga Sanchez, Bastian Orellano Morales, Alexander Huiaguil Chavez, and Sergio Ortega Cabello are the men named in the complaint. Last month, four of them were found with an LSU shirt and Bengals hat before being indicted by a grand jury in Ohio’s Clark County. A federal grand jury in Ohio charged three of them in early February, directly accusing them of the Burrow break-in.
Mike Conley of the Timberwolves, Mahomes, Kelce, Portis, Linval Joseph of the Cowboys (at his Minnesota home), Burrow, the mother of Celtics player Jaylen Brown, and Luca Doncic all experienced home break-ins this fall. The home of Olivier Giroud of LAFC was also targeted during a match in early February.
The unsealed complaint links the men to the burglaries of Mahomes, Kelce, Portis, and Burrow, and also ties them to previously unknown break-ins of a Tampa Bay Buccaneer on Oct. 21 during a game against the Ravens, and a Memphis Grizzlies player on Dec. 19 during a game versus the Warriors.
One man pictured in the same photo with the Chiefs shirt is unidentified in the complaint, which also mentions a contact called “Luis” in several of the burner phones. The complaint was compiled by an FBI special agent whose name was redacted.
Two men, Dimitriy Nezhinskiy and Juan Villar, were arrested earlier this month in New York under a felony indictment for burglaries, and investigators said their phone usage had been connected to two of the four men arrested in Ohio.
Different local, state, and federal agencies were involved in the investigation, including the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and seven local sheriff’s offices and police departments. All seven men are from Chile, and five of them are between 20 and 24 years old, according to the attorney’s office.
Investigators used cell tower data, iCloud search warrants, security cameras, hotel rental records, and car rental registrations to identify the men. They found photos taken soon after burglaries showing items reported missing from athletes’ homes.
According to the complaint, the burglars stole property valued at about $167,000 from the Buccaneers player, about $1.5 million from Portis, about $300,000 from Burrow, and about $1 million from the Grizzlies player. It says they stole at least $5,000 in property value from both Mahomes and Kelce, which is the amount that triggers federal law when those stolen goods are transported between states.
