The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department last month reported the arrests of 10 residential burglary suspects alleged to have been part of a “large-scale, sophisticated residential burglary crew” that operated throughout Los Angeles County, including in La Cañada Flintridge.
“We took down that major, major crew who were just coming into this area, as well as neighboring La Crescenta,” said Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Department Capt. Bill Song, whose deputies assisted on the case.
“It was very interesting because our detective crew and our deputies out here, the names they were telling me and the intelligence information I was getting, it hit right on. And ever since [the burglars are] not in the game anymore, it’s been really nice.”
According to the weekly crime bulletin provided by the CV Sheriff’s Station, there were six residential burglaries in the six weeks following the May 5 press release detailing the investigation and arrests related to the burglary ring. In the prior six weeks, 11 residential burglaries were reported.
The crew’s alleged members are suspected South Los Angeles gang members, according to the Sheriff’s Department. They allegedly began committing residential burglaries in March 2015 in Claremont, where the police department determined suspects were making phone calls into homes prior to committing burglaries.
In the proceeding months, authorities said in the statement, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Major Crimes Bureau’s Burglary-Robbery Task Force determined the Claremont burglary was part of a significantly larger ring. Task force personnel worked closely with detectives from the Crescenta Valley Station among others to identify and surveil the suspects.
“They were coming in here, getting on the 210 corridor and hitting all the affluent areas,” Song said. “That’s their goal — we go to work, they go to work.”
Sheriff’s investigators stated that they believe the burglary crew is responsible for perhaps hundreds of residential burglaries throughout Southern California, alleging that the suspects mainly traveled in expensive luxury vehicles and rental cars and generally knocked on front doors to determine if residents were home.
If no one answered, the Sheriff’s Department said, the burglars would force entry through a rear door or window, and ransack the home, stealing cash, jewelry, weapons and other valuables. Typically, authorities said, the gold and jewelry would be sold throughout Los Angeles at “Cash for Gold” businesses and local pawn shops.
“We’ve known about it for the last year, because [those names] were very, very notorious and very familiar,” said Song, adding that members of the crew also operated a similar ring before 2013, when they were convicted. “It’s a long process, and keeping those bad guys in jail is a whole other aspect.”
The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department said it is not done. Investigations are ongoing and future arrests are imminent, it said.
Sheriff’s Investigation Disrupts Burglary Ring
