Mud 'Burglary Tourism' Gangs

[JefSlatts]

'Burglary tourism' gangs who jet in from CHILE are behind raids at homes across the South-East, stealing jewellery, watches and designer clothes worth up to £400,000-a-time

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6101009/Burglar-gangs-Chile-breaking-homes-UK-stealing-jewellery.html

A Chilean crime network ransacked houses in the UK in 'burglary tourism' wave

Metropolitan Police are searching for the British-based leadership of the South American gang after multi-million-pound raids in London, Wales and Somerset

More than 75 Chilean burglars have been arrested in the past two years in the UK

Police are hunting a Chilean criminal gang that has ransacked homes across the UK in a wave of 'burglary tourism'.

The Metropolitan Police is searching for the British-based leaders of the South American gang after multi-million-pound raids in London, north Wales and Somerset.

More than 75 Chilean burglars have been arrested in the past two years in connection to burglaries in Hertfordshire, Surrey and south-west London.

The thieves steal jewellery, watches and designer clothes, with one burglary netting as much as £400,000. In some cases, they have removed safes from walls.

Despite arresting 36 suspected members of the gang this year, the Met is anticipating a new group of burglars, whose activity is thought to increase during the winter, The Times reported.

A contact meets the burglars in south London and takes their belongings and any identification, before giving them a car and a phone and sending them to burgle homes believed to be unoccupied.

Criminals have previously used garden furniture or low roofs to force entry through a first-floor window after noticing that alarm systems are often set up only on ground level.

The gang is thought to be active in several European countries, including Spain, as well as the United States and Canada. The thefts have also been linked to a corruption scandal in the Chilean capital Santiago involving bribes to police.

The burglaries will raise questions over the effectiveness of background checks in Britain. Chileans and citizens of most other Latin American countries do not require visas to enter the UK for visits of up to three months.

The Met Police used automatic number-plate recognition technology to identify vehicles used by the burglars.

At least two of the Chilean criminals crept into a garden of a Surrey mansion just before Christmas last year. They dragged a table to a rear wall before one of them is believed to have stood on the other's shoulders to smash through a first-floor bedroom window.

The raid was one of more than a dozen in the upmarket Esher and Cobham areas of Surrey.

At least 200 similar burglaries are thought to have been carried out across the country by Chileans.

The Surrey victim, who was out at the time of the raid and requested anonymity, said: 'The point of entry was my daughter's bedroom and there was mud everywhere, all over the white curtains.

It's a sense of great violation. My bedroom was a mess, they had strewn my husband's medical records from the Royal Marsden all over and taken all of my jewellery,' she said, adding that thieves snatched at least £14,000 worth of belongings.

The Chilean network has been active for two years. Detective Constable Lisa Keeley, who first spotted the pattern, told The Times: 'They steal Mulberry bags, Michael Kors bags, even things like Dior suits, Chanel scarves.'

Detective Inspector Tim Court, who is leading the nationwide response, added: 'We put the message out to immigration and Border Force.

'The big question was 'where is this stuff going?' We intercepted a series of boxes going back to Chile. Hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of jewellery.' Inspector Ivan Villanueva, a senior officer in the Chilean capital of Santiago, said multiple groups were carrying out raids in different countries.

'These are Chilean specialist criminals moving abroad to commit crimes. They have identified that certain societies in Europe are more vulnerable to certain kinds of robbery.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6101009/Burglar-gangs-Chile-breaking-homes-UK-stealing-jewellery.html

[Br.IanVonTurpie]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7278481/Firearms-burglary-gang-jailed-48-years.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ico=taboola_feed

A gang of burglars targeted rural homes to steal shotguns and sell them to other criminals

Kadim Shah, John Shorthouse and Roshan Singh were responsible for more than 30 break-ins, taking cars and watches as well as licensed guns.

They travelled from Birmingham to carry out raids at properties in Warwickshire and Worcestershire. Dressed all in black and wearing balaclavas, they smashed their way into homes in broad daylight while the owners were at work

The guns they collected were then passed on to criminal associates in Birmingham. Five, including a Beretta shotgun, were recovered by police.

One was found in the car of a rapper who was later jailed for two years. Another was recovered from a vehicle used by gangsters who had boasted about drugs and guns in videos on YouTube

Shorthouse, 23, Singh, 29, and Shah, 21, have now been jailed for a total of 48 years

The first weapon they stole was found in November. Acting on a tip-off, officers stopped rapper Maher Ali and found the Beretta in the passenger footwell of the Volkswagen Golf he was driving. The gun – which was in three parts, and wrapped in bags concealed in a jacket – had been stolen hours earlier from a house near Stratford-upon-Avon.

Ali, 21, had been seen getting out of Singh's Vauxhall Astra just before being stopped. He was jailed for two years for gun possession.

A sawn-off shotgun and large quantities of class A drugs were found in nearby Stirchley, in the boot of a car which had also been stolen in a burglary in Warwickshire. Shaun Barnhurst, 20, and Remi Carty, 21 – who had 50,000 followers on YouTube and appeared in a video surrounded by cash and scantily-clad women – were jailed for 15 years each for drugs offences and gun possession. Three more shotguns were found in a stolen car parked near Shorthouse's home.

As well as burgling houses, Shorthouse, Singh and Shah also carried out a ram-raid at a Co-op in Earlswood, Warwickshire in December. CCTV footage showed them reversing a 4x4 into the shop before attaching a cash machine to the car and dragging it out. The ATM was later found with around £40,000 cash missing

Not so tough, flashing your bling, acting like Pimps now you filthy Curry Munchers!