PONTIAC, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – They are not your run-of-the-mill burglaries. It’s a sophisticated group of criminals, usually three or four of them in a team, who approach houses with special equipment including jammers to disable wireless burglar alarms. They also sometimes go in and out of homes on the second floors to avoid ground level motion detectors.

Since September, more than 30 break-ins of mostly high-end homes in Oakland county have happened according to Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard in a press conference on Wednesday. The break-ins are being blamed on transnational gangs with people mostly out of Chile who are targeting mansions, jewelry stores and cars in southeast Michigan communities.

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Sheriff Bouchard stood with other law enforcement agencies at a recent press conference – those who have pledged their support for a regional task force to target the gangs according to a report from the Detroit Free Press. Those offering assistance to Bouchard include two dozen police departments in Oakland County, Wayne County agencies (Grosse Pointe Farms, Canton and Northville), Macomb County, the FBI, U.S. Border Patrol and the Secret Service. Praising the FBI’s involvement, Sheriff Bouchard said, ”Thankfully, the FBI is involved because they have boots on the ground in Chile and these other countries” in South America.

What are the thieves taking? Sheriff Bouchard says, “In our area, they are targeting jewelry, precious metals, high-end items such as purses, electronics, currency, high-end watches, and if there’s a safe that’s not attached or they can either break into it on scene or carry it, they’ll do that.”

Sheriff Bouchard said about the break-ins, “We had five of these incidents just over the weekend” (in Bloomfield Hills and Bloomfield Township) and “seven over Thanksgiving weekend” (Oakland County). He added, “and I know the Grosse Pointes have been hit.”

Adding to the sophistication of the gangs is the fact that they are all dressed in black, which makes their clothing look all white in the surveillance videos because they’re being filmed at night. Sheriff Bouchard says the gangs are “very well trained” adding, “They very often try to approach homes in a secluded manner – from woods, for example. They’re looking for jewelry, cash, safes, even a larger safe. They’ll take that with them and try to brute-force it open later.”

Sheriff Bouchard warns that if you have a high-end home, you could be a target; however, the homes targeted haven’t been exclusively in expensive neighborhoods. Sheriff Bouchard said that any home that fits the criteria of the thieves can be a target. Luckily, the gangs don’t appear to be violent. Sheriff Bouchard said, “In one of the few times when they went into a house and the people were home, as soon as they found out, they ran.”

According to WDIV Local 4-Detroit, so far, four Chilean residents have been arrested in Oakland County in connection with an Oakland County home burglary. No other specifics about recent suspects or arrests were given by Sheriff Bouchard but he said that he hopes to have some charges soon. He added that investigations in Oakland County point to visitors who are on temporary visas or other newcomers to the United States who are from Chile, Venezuela and Colombia. It’s possible that the organized crime network has been operating in Metro Detroit for about two years according to Sheriff Bouchard, with similar break-ins happening in the counties of Wayne and Macomb.

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Crime from transnational gangs coming into the United States is not just a problem in Oakland County though or even in Michigan – it’s a national problem “but now they’ve found Oakland County,” Sheriff Bouchard said and added, “We’re concerned with people coming here to commit crimes.”

Sheriff Bouchard doesn’t believe the criminals will stick with just doing break-ins in Oakland County. He said, “That can happen in any community.”

With the increase of foreigners coming through the open borders, there has been an increase of crime across the country. FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform), a non-partisan, public interest organization that evaluates policies, seeking out solutions that help reduce the negative impact of uncontrolled immigration on the nation’s security, economy, workforce, education, healthcare, and environment, wrote a recent article about how their organization is continuing to shine a much-needed light on the connection between crime and mass illegal migration.

FAIR points out that cities across the country, many of them who are sanctuary cities, are seeing increased crime along with increased immigration into their communities. In Chicago, they point to a 11% increase in the arrest of Venezuelans since the summer of 2022 with 686 arrests since the beginning of 2023. These Venezuelans include those who have crossed the border illegally and others who the Biden administration has let in through their “parole authority.” This authority allows illegal aliens to enter the United States for a limited period of time for humanitarian parole.

Another city seeing increased crime in their sanctuary city is New York City where in fiscal year 2022, the ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations) in NYC arrested 46,396 noncitizen with criminal histories – with a combined 198,498 associated charges and convictions including 21,531 assault offenses; 8,164 sex and sexual assault offenses; 5,554 weapons offenses; 1,501 homicide-related offenses; and 1,114 kidnapping offenses.