Federal authorities have identified a new migrant crime “industry” involving robbery crews from South America who exploit America’s immigration system, break into a string of homes and make off with loot, then flee back to their home countries.

Some come legally on short-term visas specifically to steal while others are part of the ongoing border surge and get recruited into the sophisticated theft operations.

The latest bust came last week in New Jersey, where six Chileans were charged in federal court with robberies stretching from the tonier neighborhoods of Baltimore up to Westchester, New York, where owners reported losing diamond earrings, pearl necklaces and a safe with a collection of rare coins.

When federal agents caught up with the six migrants, they found a cache of burglary tools, including a handheld radial saw, cutting tools, window punches for breaking glass windows and balaclavas and work gloves.

The FBI said they are part of a trend of migrants who travel up from South America, hop from community to community hitting multiple homes in each, then head back home.

“This isn’t your traditional crime spree; it is an actual industry of organized criminals who invade and shatter people’s private sanctuaries and steal valuable possessions,” said James E. Dennehy, the FBI’s special agent in charge at its office in Newark, New Jersey.

Chilean migrants have been implicated in strings of burglaries from California to Florida to Michigan, and they are known for the planning they put into their jobs. They case neighborhoods, track routines and pick wealthy homes.

They’re even known to use jammers to block wireless security camera signals

Oakland County, Michigan, Sheriff Mike Bouchard said Chilean thieves made off with $800,000 worth of cash and jewelry from a single home in his jurisdiction.

“They’re super well-trained when they get here, highly organized, they look like ninjas, they’re all masked up, gloves, they each have a backpack with their particular set of tools for their job in the burglary,” the sheriff said in a press conference last month.

Authorities say the Chileans often come legally, arrive as tourists, go on a crime spree and then return home. Chile is part of the U.S. visa waiver program which means most visitors can skip the usual in-person interview overseas.

Other South American theft ring operators are illegal immigrants who jumped the border and appear to have been recruited into burglary gangs once they were already here.

The six men charged with the latest New York and Maryland burglaries are Flavio Bladimir Astete Castillo, Dareyen Mauricio Cortes-Canete, Luis Esteban Castillo Vivar, Max Vidal Navarrete, Jordán Estefano Contreras Vilches and Juan Jose Ramirez Nilo.

Authorities say the arrests came as part of an investigation into burglaries in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. They traced a Kia Forte to one of the New York robberies and later located the vehicle outside an apartment building in Jersey City.

Security footage from the building showed figures believed to be the suspects lugging a safe the same day police in Baltimore say a safe was stolen from a home there.

When authorities approached the men at a shopping mall in New Jersey that day, one of them was found wearing a chain necklace stolen from one of the New York burglaries. The Kia also had bags containing other looted items.

Neither the U.S. attorney’s office nor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided immigration histories on the men but deportation officers were involved in the April 19 arrest of five of them, indicating they have less than solid legal status.

Mr. Nilo was released that day but was arrested later in Los Angeles, where he was being held late last week.

Authorities have also linked the South American crime wave to Colombians, Peruvians, Ecuadorians and Venezuelans — particularly Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan-born gang that’s become a focus amid the Biden border surge.

The brother of the man accused of killing Georgia college student Laken Riley has been tied to the gang through tattoos and social media posts. Diego Ibarra snuck into the U.S. in 2023, attempted to bite a Border Patrol agent, was released by ICE with an ankle monitor, cut off the monitor and began a string of criminal entanglements that included charges of shoplifting and driving under the influence and a domestic violence call to his home.

Tren de Aragua has also been linked to the migrant mob that beat two New York City police officers earlier this year; to brazen cell phone robberies where culprits would drive by on motorcycles, snatching phones out of pedestrians’ hands; and to strings of burglaries targeting wealthy neighborhoods.

Patrick Lechleitner, acting director at ICE, said they are working to prevent Tren de Aragua from becoming a major threat.

“We don’t want it to become the next MS-13,” Mr. Lechleitner told The Washington Times in an interview.  “We’re very cognizant of what occurred with MS-13 and what it took to get that under control and we don’t want it to happen again. So we’re taking a very tough look at it to make sure we’re ahead of that curve if possible. But it is a concern, and it’s a problematic gang.”

Tren de Aragua has quickly seeped into the U.S. immigration debate, so much so that Customs and Border Protection’s list of gang members apprehended didn’t even include a category for them until last month.

CBP reports having spotted 41 members of the gang in 2023 and six members of the gang so far in fiscal year 2024. Given the criminal activity blamed on TDA, those numbers likely understate the gang’s presence in the U.S.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.