Metro Detroit police brace for more burglaries by South American 'crime tourists'

"These defendants are currently incarcerated in the State of Indiana," Nessel spokesman Danny Wimmer said in an email. "Upon completion of their time in jail, expected later this year, they will be extradited back to Michigan to face the charges issued by this department. At that time, they will be arraigned on those charges, and they will appear to you in the court system."

Joshua Kocher, a spokesperson for the prosecutor's office in Hamilton County, Ind., said because the defendants were given time served and have only a few months left on their two-year sentences, they're being held in the Hamilton County Jail instead of being processed through Indiana's prison system. When their sentences are over, they'll be extradited to Michigan, he said.

In August, four Chilean nationals were charged in Oakland County with armed robberies earlier that month of the MJ Diamonds store at the Great Lakes Crossing Outlets in Auburn Hills and the Macy's store at Oakland Mall in Troy. Bouchard said all four defendants had abused the visa system.

Attorney Eric Wilson, who represents Hernan Parraquez-Mondaca, one of the four people charged in the jewelry store robberies, said he just received the case and has only spoken once with his client through an interpreter. Attorneys for the other defendants did not return phone calls.

Kocher said investigators from the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office were able to get information about the South American burglary groups from interrogating gang members who were arrested by police in Indiana.

"We caught a couple people red-handed, and we flipped them and got them to break down the process," Kocher said. "They'll start up a cell and put their own team together, and then go recruit more people. They were targeting a lot of Asian business owners; they'd follow them home from their places of business and stake out their houses to get everyone's schedules."

Who has been targeted in Michigan

Bouchard said Asian Americans have made up a disproportionate number of robbery victims in Michigan.

"Lots of times, certain ethnic groups own businesses, so these gangs may be thinking they're bringing the proceeds home," he said.

Northville Township Deputy Police Chief Matthew MacKenzie said he saw the same pattern in the first of the string of burglaries that happened in his jurisdiction.

"We think this group was potentially tied to targeting Asian-American business owners in some of the earlier cases, although we think they've branched out since, and aren't just focusing on those individuals," MacKenzie said.

Brian Gao, president of the Detroit Chinese Business Association, said he hadn't heard of Asian American homeowners being targeted by the South American gangs. Phone calls and emails to other Metro Detroit Asian American advocacy groups were not returned.

While most of the burglaries have occurred while the homeowners were gone, MacKenzie said there was a recent case in Northville Township where the resident surprised the gang.

"Since these gangs will watch a house for days to get people's patterns, they usually break in when nobody's home, but we just had a case in late March where the homeowners were home," MacKenzie said. "The homeowner had one of those motion detector systems, and when the man got an alert on his cellphone and started turning lights on, the burglars took off pretty quick. We're lucky nobody was hurt.

"We have no leads," MacKenzie said. "This has been happening all over the place. So we've been working with other agencies to try to piece it all together."

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