Four men from Chile were indicted Tuesday in what the Ohio attorney general called a string of burglaries at multimillion-dollar homes, but he declined to say whether professional athletes were the targets.
The four were arrested earlier this month in Ohio after being found in an SUV along with an LSU shirt and a Cincinnati Bengals hat. Both were believed to be stolen from a house near Cincinnati on Dec. 9, according to an affidavit.
The burglary in December came on the same day Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow’s home was broken into while he and the Bengals were playing in Dallas. Court documents don’t directly say whether the four men were linked to that break-in or list the address of Burrow, who played in college at LSU.
Text messages to Burrow’s agent on Tuesday were not returned. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s office said no additional information would be announced, citing an ongoing investigation.
The documents also don’t state whether the men are connected to a string of burglaries at the homes of prominent NFL, NHL and NBA players. The FBI in December issued a warning to leagues about organized crime groups targeting pro athletes, saying that organized theft groups from South America were using social media and other information to track the athletes.
Star NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes of Kansas City along with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, have been victims, as have NBA players Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks and Mike Conley Jr. of Minnesota.
Court records filed in Clark County, Ohio, say that investigators have arrested six different burglary groups from South America, with most being Chilean nationals, as part of investigation into the multi-state break-ins. The documents did not list when or where the other arrests took place or whether they connected to the athletes.
The four men arrested in Fairborn, Ohio, were indicted Tuesday on charges of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, participating in a criminal gang and possessing criminal tools.
All four were found to be illegally in the country or overstayed their permissions, according to the affidavit.
Investigators said they found devices used to break through windows and that three of the men had fake identifications, according to the documents.
No one was injured in the December break-in at Burrow’s home, which was ransacked and had a shattered bedroom window, according to a report from the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.
“I feel like my privacy has been violated in more ways than one,” Burrow said afterward. “Way more is out there than I would want out there and that I care to share.”
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Associated Press writer Joe Reedy contributed.
