3 Chilean men tied to theft ring face new charges in burglary at Joe Burrow's house

Thanks very much for being here today. Uh, my name’s Connie Pillich. I’m the prosecuting attorney for Hamilton County. And we have *** lot of people behind me and I, I do want to point out, uh, Sheriff McGuffy and Attorney General Dave Yos down from, uh, Columbus. We have some some important news for you today. Um, we also have *** member of the special agent from the FBI and other members of law enforcement joining us today. Today we’re pleased to announce the indictment of the 3 men connected to the burglary of the home of Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow. All right, so with that, if I can let you show that screen just *** wee bit. OK, this indictment is the result of months of investigative work by our Southwest Ohio burglary task force through their extensive investigation, and I really mean extensive. Uh, they had help from. The Ohio attorney General, the Clark County, Ohio prosecutor and sheriff, and many other members of law enforcement. The three men are Jordan Francisco, Quiroga, Sanchez. Bastion Alejandro Aana Morales and Sergio Andres Ortega Cabello, and we’ll be having, we will have those names for you. They were indicted on two felonies. Uh, 1st degree felony engaging in *** pattern of corrupt activity and second degree felony burglary. All three of these men are believed to be citizens of Chile who came here. Legally under *** visa-free program that the United States offers to *** handful of countries. They appear to be involved in multiple thefts and burglaries in many jurisdictions, and they are far from the only individuals who do this sort of work. Next slide, please. This slide shows uh. The three men involved. Posing while wearing some of Joe Burrow’s jewelry and accouterment. Uh, the 4th man in, in here who’s, uh, giving us *** very friendly gesture, he was not present at the home during the burglary, so he’s not *** part of this indictment. Next slide, please. The thieves laid out the items that they took. Uh So that we could have *** good idea of what they had. Uh, they were, uh, they include commemorative items, uh, was owned by Joe Burrow with his jersey number 9, also *** large amount of cash. And then the next two slides show more photos of the defendants posing with Mr. Burrow’s belongings. They’ve got the watch, the bracelets, more necklaces, and They’re just Kind enough to let us see their faces. And finally in the next slide, the items found in *** vehicle with the defendants when it was stopped in Clark County, Ohio. The stellar work of the Clark County sheriff and prosecutor helped connect us to the burglary at Joe Burrow’s house. So, uh, next slide, please. The Southwest Ohio Burglary Task Force was formed in early 2024 and it was formed specifically to investigate the string of burglaries going on in Hamilton County. Particularly those connected to organized crime such as the South American theft gangs. And I say gangs plural because there are many of them. Their methodology that this investigation uncovered. Was consistent with gang activity. We have *** lot of victims in our county. Uh, who have lost valuable and sentimental belongings as well as their sense of security in their own homes due to this type of theft activity and this task force is working very hard on all of those cases. The extensive effort is made possible through the collaboration of the Ohio Organized Crime Investigation Commission under the leadership of Ohio Attorney General and its Bureau of Criminal Investigation as well as the Indian Hill Rangers. In fact, they were the two founding members and do lead this task force, but other members of this task force include police departments from Amberley Village, Cincinnati, Deer Park, Forest Park, and Montgomery. It also includes the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, Ohio State Troopers, the FBI, and now the Clark County prosecutor and sheriff. We also have partners in Butler and Warren Counties helping us. And I, I really want to impress upon you the dedication and perseverance of the members of this task force. This work has been ongoing for months and months in the case of Indian Hill for years. It’s very complex theft and it’s very difficult to conduct these investigations and find the actual perpetrators. These officers have gone above and beyond their regular jurisdictional duties because they’ve had to follow the case cases to other jurisdictions such as Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, New York, Connecticut, and Florida, and their unwavering commitment to justice has been instrumental. In advancing this investigation. And they deserve full recognition for all the accomplishments so far. I’m very, very proud of them and the, the efforts that they’ve put forth. And well, look, there’s been *** lot of challenges because this is complex stuff and it’s not easy to follow unnamed people who have *** methodology that allows them to get in and out of somebody’s residence within 5 minutes. So I’m very proud to commend them for their perseverance and their commitment to establishing partnerships and and finding ways to keep our neighborhoods safe. I’d like to now turn it over to the Ohio Attorney General David Yost. Thank you, uh, and prosecutorilage, uh, I’m pleased to see one of your early acts in office was to bring these indictments, and, uh, this is *** major development in this ongoing investigation, uh, very excited to see these three brought to justice, uh, to answer for their crimes. Uh, the answer to organized crime in Ohio is the Organized Crime Investigations Commission, and, uh, in that other room hanging out is Rocky Nelson, former sheriff of Union County, uh, and I really appreciate his leadership of the task force, uh, the commission, and, uh, you may not have heard. Of OCIC before it was formed in 1986 and we don’t issue press releases. Uh, we don’t even acknowledge prior to an indictment that *** task force exists. But it operates by creating multi-jurisdictional task forces designed to go after organized crime in these precisely kind of uh complex cases uh and it’s made up of state and local and in this case federal uh partners. That work together and collaborate, uh, white collar crime, uh, human trafficking, drug trafficking are, are some of the specific criminal issues that we, we target and these are difficult time uh crimes to, uh, to prosecute, to, uh, investigate. One of the reasons is that they spread out across multiple jurisdictions and so you only have *** piece of the uh puzzle in any given jurisdiction. Uh, this case is *** great example because you know the other side of large theft cases or burglary cases is finding what was stolen when it gets fenced, uh, but the fencing, uh, frequently occurred out of state, uh, not just out of the original jurisdiction, uh, and so there were *** great number of threads to tie, uh, to pull on to *** great number of, uh, dots to connect. Uh, these folks, uh, on OCIC on this task force are the best of what they do and what they do as we’re finding out here today is they find the bad guys, uh. I want to, uh, thank particularly our co-leaders from Indian Hill Police Department, uh, the other uh folks in in the task force have done an amazing job, uh, and of course our, our partners at the FBI and, and Homeland Security investigations have been invaluable as well, um. The Investigation is ongoing. I expect more developments over time. You will hear about them when the relevant prosecutors are prepared to bring *** case forward, but trust me, this will not be the last case that comes out of this investigation. Finally, uh, I’d like to point out that none of these three should be in the country right now. Uh, they are past their appropriate stay with the visas, uh, and this is one more instance why it’s important that people come through the front door to America that they come legally and through the system, uh. Not everyone who comes in some other way is necessarily *** criminal, uh, but these are crimes that should not be happening in our communities and in our state. I want to commend my partners and the folks that have worked so hard on this for their uh victory today. Uh, there’s obviously more process to go. As the attorney General, I want to state for the record that all three of these men are presumed innocent until proven guilty by proof beyond *** reasonable doubt in *** court of law. Being familiar with the file, I’m convinced that when *** jury hears this evidence, reaching that verdict will not be *** problem. Thank you. And here Thank you. The sheriff of Hamilton County, it’s important to note that when my office became uh aware of this organized crime group and the fact that they were operating inside Hamilton County and. You know, creating theft and of many different people’s homes, uh, you know, doing things like staking out neighborhoods and so on and so forth, so we created *** local task force to address the fact that when we did apprehend these individuals that we were able to keep them in incarceration. Uh, we made it known to judges who these men were, why they were in jail. There is *** process that we have of high profile prisoners that we use inside the jail to make sure they’re classified appropriately and so forth. And then as *** consequence of the task force of, you know, just addressing the incarceration, of course we had our professionals in the sheriff’s department, Detective Justice Justin French invest. Kayla Kraeger and also from our criminal investigation section we also had Detective Kevin Mannos. They came together and did *** tremendous amount of work on tracking these individuals and other individuals that were wanted in this county and when they moved about, which they did, they moved about the different states, about the United States and did so very quickly, changed cars, did *** lot. Of things to try and elude law enforcement, we were still able to track them. We were still able to bring them to justice. So I do commend those investigators and officers who helped with that. And you know, I would like to say that on January 10th, 2025 our team located these three individuals and were able to coordinate with our partners. In Hamilton County and other regions throughout the state and other states to bring these men to justice, uh, we have other men who are involved in these theft groups who are incarcerated now and uh they are not getting out of incarceration. We are making sure that they stand. They stand appropriately responsible for these criminal acts and that they are prosecuted and I’m so very glad to work with our partners, madam prosecutor, attorney general. And bring these people to justice and thank you all very much and again I cannot speak highly enough about the local task force which also included Indian Hill and other agencies that came to the table. Thank you. And now we’ll hear from the FBI. Good afternoon. The FBI is committed to working with our local, state, and federal partners to address the organized theft groups that have targeted southern Ohio. The task force leveraged our individual expertise and resources that every agency here brought to the table to investigate these crimes. In addition to the local charges, the FBI and task force coordinated with the US Attorney’s Office here in Southern District of Ohio to charge the defendants federally on interstate transportation of stolen property. And falsification of records. The FBI is also working with law enforcement across the country to share the information to dismantle these thefting groups. If *** perpetrator is in our country illegally and committing serious crime, law enforcement is going to use every tool to identify, arrest and prosecute them. This is an ongoing case, and we will continue to investigate this group, their associates, and any similar groups that are performing these acts in Southern Ohio. Thank you. And I was, uh, take questions. Yes, can you talk to me about the number of cases the task force is handling right now? I think I have just from public records about 38, and that’s just from 5 jurisdictions I have public records from, um, from what I’m hearing, it’s more than that, maybe over 100 is there on that thank you. Attorney General, on the original charging documents, it appeared that BCI had *** significant amount of information about these four individuals and were surveilling them before Ohio Highway Patrol actually pulled them over, got them into custody without giving away too many specifics because I know that those investigations are ongoing. Talk about the way that *** lot of that information is collected and used to make sure that when an arrest is made they can be held. So you not. Come on in. The prosecutor could speak to the proof of the elements of crime and the kind of conditions that go into bail, uh, considerations, um, so you not only have to just think about do you have the right guy, but can you convict them and can you hold them? Is there sufficient information that the judge is going to find compelling under Rule 41 and relevant precedent that they’re going to be willing to put, uh, keep these people in custody. Um, obviously foreign nationals and uh they could disappear in the night. One of my first cases when I was *** prosecutor years ago was *** major drug trafficking case. Um, we got *** million dollars bail and they jumped it and they just walked away from the million dollars, uh, so those are all important, uh, considerations and. Uh, without getting into methods, uh, or, or tactics, uh, you can be assured that we’re being very thorough in these cases. Well, that’s what so he had *** phone number from one of the individuals, called it and recognized the bag. I mean this was *** very complex process before he even got to the point of arrest, right? I am sure that at trial some of these facts are gonna come out. I’m not going to discuss, uh, methods and tactics today. I think you have discussed multiple victims within this county. These three that we’re talking about specifically today, are they’ve been linked to other cases within Hamilton County? Uh, let the prosecutor answer that question. No, they have not. Do you know if they’re linked to any other high profile athletes across the country such as Patrick Mahomes, Pavielsey, Bobby Portis? I’ve, I’ve got to ask, ask my investigator here. Hang on *** second. OK Right, those uh, those cases are under investigation and we’re, we’re not allowed to talk about that because it would jeopardize the investigation success. Can you say how widespread an issue, um, the burglaries related to the South American factories, how widespread is an issue is that like is that *** national issue? It’s definitely *** national issue. It crosses multiple states. And the burglaries are happening, they make mistakes. Yes, and, and I think you will find in other jurisdictions reporting. By news agencies about this, this type of theft. Do you know if they they targeted Joe Burrow’s house because he was Joe Burrow or just because it fit the house on *** hillside they come up further back. Um, I can’t talk about the details. You all mentioned that visa waiver program. Is there other things that you all think should be done on the federal level to combat this crime here in Southwest Ohio and across the country? Well, I can tell you one thing we’re grateful for right now is there is an ICE detainer on these 3 men. So even if they post bail they’re not going anywhere we do in this county want to prosecute them to the fullest fullest extent of the law and make sure that people know that this is not an acceptable form of behavior in the United States but um. As far as The other things you’re asking about, we’re just doing everything we can to make sure we put our case together fully and strongly. This might be *** question for the FBI, but how coordinated is this? Are we talking about dozens of people, hundreds of people, uh, that are involved in this, this de ring? Are they training them, sending them out, the sale of the merchandise? I mean, how, how deep does this get with how coordinated this is? I can’t comment on that. Can you comment on and not maybe this case specific or any specific case, but the amount I guess of surveillance that goes into this for them, like from what I understand from talking to retired FBI agents, they do surveillance at home sometimes they look up the house on Zillow, they use drones, sometimes they act as delivery drivers, maybe weeks, months before they commit the burglaries, and someone would speak to what goes into committing these crimes. I think what’s in the public record is what you can rely on here, but we can’t talk about the evidence we have. We just got the indictment right now it’s considered attorney work product, and we will be working with our team to decide what evidence we will be presenting at trial right now. We just can’t talk about it. I would just add to that we’re not about to uh to uh conduct *** how to do it scenario here. The criminals in the audience that are watching. What about the, um, just I guess one of the complaints that I got from victims who are not professional athletes was like, hey, my home was burglarized too and now you’re recording it because it’s Joe Burrow. I’d like to respond directly to that. This task force has been working its tail off just in this task force for over *** year, and they are investigating every single one of these crimes. Yes, Joe Burrow is *** notable celebrity. And we thought the press would be interested in it and judging by the number of people in this room, I think I was right about that. That’s why we’re doing this but it does highlight that this is an ongoing problem, and I can promise you that this task force is taking every single offense very, very seriously and we’re doing everything we can to bring the perpetrators and those other uh burglaries to justice. She this is *** question for you. You indicate that there was *** special task force established. Make sure that these people didn’t get out of jail if they were apprehended. Why is that not more standard practice, um, and, and why is it just necessary in this case, uh, to put special, you know, attention to them not getting that approved? Yes, because they are, because they are in this country, uh, overstayed their visa. They are here committing crime. And uh we are focused on people who commit crime and you know uh prior to this one of the individuals was able to post *** bond and we do not want that absolutely not you’re *** criminal you committed *** crime you’re continuing to commit crime you’re associated with an organized crime ring. Uh, you will be brought to justice in Hamilton County and in any other state you operate in, and that message has been made clear, and I will say this that task force that we assembled has been assembled for many months, and we have been addressing those thefts that occurred in other areas of Hamilton County, and we were able to identify *** number of things and you know, I’ll say this as well as. As you know, uh, the questions regarding how we catch up and how we identify these people law enforcement is plugged in in Hamilton County. We have the vision to create technology to create systems, and we’re doing that and our message and our message across the nation to criminals like this and organized crime is we can find you. We will find you and we will bring you to justice. To clarify there, the task force has been operating for months, was not established specific to the Borough case. It was established specific to the criminal. Correct, it was established because the pattern that we saw and the fact that we needed to have *** unified communication. When these individuals, high profile individuals came into jail, who we know are actively trying to jump on, who are actively trying to get back to their criminal activity. How long does it take to get them before *** judge here in Hamilton County? Obviously there’s *** process they have to go through in Clark County before they get back here, but, uh, getting justice in this county, I assume it’s going to take some time given that they’re being held in Clark. Yeah, uh, yeah, it takes time. It always takes time. The wheels of justice sometimes seem to move very slowly. Clark County has been very, very cooperative with us, and they have agreed that if we want to move first on our, uh, our charges, they’ll transport the prisoners down here. And let us prosecute them here first. What about federal versus uh the county charges like the process first federally? The, the US Attorney’s office did indict somebody I don’t recall exactly who for transporting stolen goods across state lines, uh, the. And the FBI can talk to talk about this *** little bit better than I can, but there’s not *** federal offense for burglary that just hasn’t been written by Congress and so the only way we can get these guys on burglary is by doing charging it locally in Hamilton County. Do you think that there are still people out there potentially connected to this theft group? Do people in these high profile areas Indian Hill where we’ve seen these burglaries still have to be *** little on edge? Are they still out there? Yeah, they, I think that’s very possible that they have connections or that people are paying attention to what uh other members of their their gang are paying attention to what’s going on with them. So that yeah I think people should be concerned. What solutions do you have or planning to put in place to combat the thefting specifically? Well, my job’s in the courthouse. They’ve been, they’ve been indicted. I think, thank my uh chief of grand jury who’s in the back, Kate Burrows for running this, and Joe Mershoff, one of my and, and Robert Vic on, on my staff who helped put this this case together with the coordination of the task force. Uh, as I think. Uh That people need to be aware. One of the reasons we do this press press conference is to let you know the types of activities these are, the nature of the gangs, what their MO is, which will come out, uh, in the press. I think you’ve probably all covered it pretty well already, but. Part of this is to get people to think about their personal security where they keep their um precious belongings and how how if at all they should have *** security system. With that in mind, I, I don’t believe this was outlined in the reports, but are they armed with anything more than *** screwdriver when they’re coming into these homes? I mean, if someone finds themselves in *** situation where these guys are breaking into their house, I mean, it feels like something they need to know. It’d be hard for me to guess in any every case uh we when we start to put the facts forward on our case here, you’ll see what they had in their possession. But there are others in these gangs who knows what they’re doing. We have *** hard out at 3:30, so whichever questions coming up this last. It just so, um, homeowners can be aware, um, just from going through reports from multiple agencies, because the biggest misconception is that it’s multi-million dollar homes in Indian Hill or Amberley Village. What I’m finding is, no, it’s not. It could be *** $300,000 home. In Westchester, can you talk that it does mean your house is not necessarily, you don’t have to be *** millionaire to get become *** come. Well, I think you said it very well. You don’t need to be *** millionaire to be *** victim of these theft rings. I talked with the police chief from Madeira this morning. He said they had 3 burglaries there. I, uh, I was at the Hamilton County Police Association meeting and so. Many jurisdictions in the county have reported these types of burglaries. It’s unfortunate that, uh, it’s an organized crime ring. And they seem to have similar methods that they use. I, I’d like to suggest that people do what they can to secure their homes and their belongings. And with that, thank you everybody. I have *** press release here. I have some information about the task force and speakers here. I, I just want to follow up on one question before we quit, uh, the question about whether they were armed or not, you know, first of all, that’s *** confidential piece of the investigation and probably nobody’s talking about that. But I wanna, I, I want to point out that just because let’s assume for *** moment that they never had anything more than *** screwdriver. Uh, first of all, you die from *** screwdrivers. Secondly, that doesn’t mean that that’s not going to change. One of the things that is true is today this investigation’s out of the bag, and people know now because you’re all here and this indictment is public that we’re looking for them and that there’s *** significant number of resources that are going to bust up this gang, uh, from top to bottom. I don’t know what they’re going to do, so my recommendation to any Ohioan uh is that you assume that if you run into somebody breaking into your home that they are armed. uh, don’t provoke confrontation unless you’re prepared, uh, to deal with that. Ohio does have the castle doctrine and you’re permitted uh to use your deadly force to defend yourself within your home, uh, and that’s the law. But it doesn’t do you any good if you’re resting on your rights and you’ve misunderstood that somebody with *** screwdriver, uh, actually has *** Glock with them too. Be prepared, be cautious, and don’t provoke *** confrontation that you’re not prepared to deal with. Uh, this is, these are people who should be treated as dangerous people. Thank you.

3 Chilean men tied to theft ring face new charges in burglary at Joe Burrow’s house

Updated: 4:05 PM EST Feb 12, 2025

Three Chilean men tied to an organized theft ring have been indicted in connection with the burglary of Joe Burrow’s house. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich and Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey gathered Wednesday to make the announcement.The three suspects, Jordan Francisco Quiroga Sanchez, Bastian Alejandro Orellana Morales and Sergio Andres Ortega Cabello have been indicted on two felony charges, first-degree felony engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and burglary. Combined, the two charges carry a sentence of 19 years.Pillich said the three are under an ICE detainer, so if they post bond, they cannot leave the country. Pillich said the suspects are citizens of Chile and came to the country legally under a visa-free program that the U.S. offers to countries.The suspects are believed to be responsible for multiple thefts and burglaries across multiple states.”Their methodology that this investigation uncovered was consistent with gang activity,” Pillich said, saying there are a lot of victims in the county.”Far from the only individuals who do this sort of work,” Pillich said. Pillich shared more photos of the suspects wearing items stolen from the burglaries.Pillich said a fourth person pictured in one of the photos was not present at the time of the burglary at Burrow’s home so he won’t be indicted in this case.Pillich says there may be more suspects tied to this theft ring. “Yeah, I think people should be concerned,” Pillich said, people should be thinking of personal security and where they place their belongings. Yost said the investigation is ongoing and there will be more developments.”Trust me this will not be the last case that comes out of this investigation,” Yost said.Yost said none of the suspects should be in the country right now, saying they have been here “past the appropriate stay.””Organized crime has no place in our communities, and we will hold those responsible accountable,” Pillich said. This case was investigated by the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission Task Force, led by the Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Indian Hill Police Department, and the Amberley Village Police Department, with support from local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.

Three Chilean men tied to an organized theft ring have been indicted in connection with the burglary of Joe Burrow’s house.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, Hamilton County Prosecutor Connie Pillich and Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey gathered Wednesday to make the announcement.

The three suspects, Jordan Francisco Quiroga Sanchez, Bastian Alejandro Orellana Morales and Sergio Andres Ortega Cabello have been indicted on two felony charges, first-degree felony engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and burglary. Combined, the two charges carry a sentence of 19 years.

Pillich said the three are under an ICE detainer, so if they post bond, they cannot leave the country.

Pillich said the suspects are citizens of Chile and came to the country legally under a visa-free program that the U.S. offers to countries.

The suspects are believed to be responsible for multiple thefts and burglaries across multiple states.

“Their methodology that this investigation uncovered was consistent with gang activity,” Pillich said, saying there are a lot of victims in the county.

“Far from the only individuals who do this sort of work,” Pillich said.

Pillich shared more photos of the suspects wearing items stolen from the burglaries.

hamilton county prosecutor

Pillich said a fourth person pictured in one of the photos was not present at the time of the burglary at Burrow’s home so he won’t be indicted in this case.

Pillich says there may be more suspects tied to this theft ring.

“Yeah, I think people should be concerned,” Pillich said, people should be thinking of personal security and where they place their belongings.

Yost said the investigation is ongoing and there will be more developments.

“Trust me this will not be the last case that comes out of this investigation,” Yost said.

Yost said none of the suspects should be in the country right now, saying they have been here “past the appropriate stay.”

“Organized crime has no place in our communities, and we will hold those responsible accountable,” Pillich said.

This case was investigated by the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission Task Force, led by the Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Indian Hill Police Department, and the Amberley Village Police Department, with support from local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.