Trio facing Hamilton County theft counts now face added charges in Michigan
(WISH) — Three Chilean nationals facing theft counts in Hamilton County, Indiana, were charged Monday in Michigan for a series of invasions of mansions and high-end homes.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said the three are suspected in eight break-ins after they arrived in the Detroit area on a Feb. 1 flight from Los Angeles. The FBI has identified the three as members of what’s formally designated the South American Theft Group.
Nessel says the three are connected to eight break-ins from February in Oakland, Wayne, and Kent counties. In Michigan, they are charged with conducting a criminal enterprise, and second-degree home invasion.
Several law enforcement agencies believe the group’s crimes are conducted by “non-citizen, temporary residents from countries in South America who travel to the United States and the state of Michigan specifically in order to conduct these burglaries,” Nessel said. “There are more out there.”
Carmel, Indiana, police earlier this year arrested Jeremy Jorge Jesus Linai Martinez, 19; Ignacio Antonio Ruiz Saldias, 29; and Tamara Masiel Ruiz Saldias, 36, in Hamilton County. Hamilton County online jail records show Martinez as being from Pamona, California, and the Saldiases as being from Los Angeles. Online jail records say the offenses they’re charged with happened in late February.
All three were being held Monday night at the Hamilton County jail in Noblesville on bonds from $300,000 to $500,000. Online court records show they face charges of theft of property worth more than $50,000; and burglary. Their next hearings in Hamilton Superior Court 5 are set for Jan. 24 at the courthouse in Noblesville.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
