A group of newly arrived immigrants who may be part of a larger crime ring are allegedly behind a string of retail thefts and burglaries that have plagued suburban Chicago, police said.
In all, 47 immigrants have been arrested since October in the village of Oak Brook, about 20 miles west of Second City, Police Chief Brian Strockis told Fox News, adding that many of the incidents have targeted Macy’s at the local mall.
On Jan. 13, Jaime Ubaldo Obando-Andrade, 32, allegedly tried on a $395 jacket at a department store and walked out without paying for it, according to a news release from DuPage County State’s Attorney Bob Berlin’s office.
Police found about $3,000 in suspected stolen goods in Obando-Andrade’s car, as well as a roll of tinfoil and a fake driver’s license, they said.
Shoplifters will sometimes line bags with tinfoil to surround shoplifting detection devices, authorities said.
Officials also found an ICE electronic monitoring device that Obando-Andrade allegedly hacked, according to the Attorney General’s Office. Obando-Andrade was denied pre-trial release.
More than 34,000 immigrants have arrived in Chicago since August 2022. AP
“This retail crime involving immigrant offenders is part of a larger criminal enterprise and we are working closely with our federal partners to thoroughly investigate this case,” Strockis said in the statement.
In October, Venezuelan immigrants Luis Mendez-Gomez, 28, and Frank Montez-Davila, 23, were arrested after they allegedly stole nearly $3,000 in luxury cosmetics from Macy’s and granted pre-trial release.
A week earlier, another pair of Venezuelan immigrants were arrested and charged with burglary and retail theft after they separately stole clothes from the store, authorities said.
“We want everyone to be aware of the increased criminal activity from the immigrant community coming from Chicago,” Oak Brook Deputy Police Chief Reid Foltyniewicz said at the time.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson recently called for the federal government to take a bigger role in dealing with the immigrant crisis. TNS
Chicago, a sanctuary city that does not cooperate with federal authorities investigating crimes by illegal immigrants or allow local law enforcement to inquire about a person’s citizenship status, has taken in about 34,000 immigrants since 2022.
In December, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who had previously supported sanctuary city policies, appealed for federal help in dealing with the crisis at the border.
“Without real and tangible investment from our federal government, it’s not just the city of Chicago that won’t be able to sustain this mission,” Johnson told CNN. “The whole country is now at stake.”
The Oak Brook Police Department has been working to crack down on shoplifting at the mall as part of a statewide retail crime task force, WGN-TV reported in December. Migrants are just the latest trend in an ongoing wave of suspected theft.
Forty-seven immigrants have been arrested since October in the Chicago suburb of Oak Brook, mostly for retail theft and burglary, according to police. AP
Police believe members of an organized retail theft operation may have approached immigrants in Chicago and offered to pay them to carry out the thefts. “We think it’s part of something bigger,” Strockis told the outlet.
Twenty-one people were charged with shoplifting from DuPage County stores in just the first two weeks of 2024 alone, according to Berlin’s office.
Governor Hochul last week unveiled a plan to pump $40 million into combating retail theft in New York in the coming year.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
