It’s hard to imagine that there is a group of international thieves dubbed the South American Theft Group. Even harder to imagine that this group has executed a theft of 3 million dollars in our own backyard. Reality is sometimes stranger than fiction, and it just goes to show, when an international group of thieves executed a robbery overnight in a jewelry store at Cadillac Fairview Mall in Pointe-Claire, a borough in Montreal located in the West of the island.
The robbery had taken place Wednesday night, and in the wee hours of Thursday morning. The target of the thieves had been a jewelry store named Diamants Elinor. 3 vehicles packed with multiple types of tools to allow entry into the mall, and further more into Diamants Elinor. The 10 thieves started working, cracking a safe, and snatching jewelry displayed throughout the store.
The robbery took a turn throughout the night, when squad cars had apprehended the 3 getaway vehicles, as well as the thieves, and found the various tools inside them. The suspects that were apprehended consist of 8 men and 2 women, who were all arrested and appeared in a Montreal courthouse later with accusations of robbery, break and enter and being in possession of tools meant to be used throughout a robbery.
These are the suspects that were arrested in relation to this crime;
- Felipe Segundo Arancibia Jauregui, 32
- David Andres Galaz Leiva, 38
- Jose Antonio Perez Munoz, 30
- Hans Mauricio Villegas Perez, 26
- Camila Paz Perez Zavala, 32
- Daniel Alejandro Carvajal Velasquez, 26
- Marcos Jesus Lobos Cordero, 38
- Fabian Andres Tapia Guzman, 33
- Camila Alejandro Tabilo Riveros, 30
- Estefano Riccar Aldea Castro, 19
More shocking, is the fact that they were all part of an international group of thieves named the South American Theft Group, or, in short, the SATG. A crime group specializing mainly in thefts and hailing from Colombia, Peru and Chili, mainly South America, as the name of the group insists. This specialized group of thieves are organized in different ‘cells’ or group if you will.
They have been involved in thefts all across the world, partaking in ‘tourism theft’. Mainly, in North America. This isn’t the first time they’ve visited Quebec, or the first time they were apprehended in Quebec.
On May 17th of 2019, another cell of the South American Theft Group was apprehended in Mississauga, Ontario, being caught in during the act. 7 suspects were charged with five break-ins which occurred in surrounding regions of the Greater Toronto Area in the days leading to the arrest. Multiple break-in tools were seized, as well as Canadian and American currency.
Within the various items seized contained a bag, stolen from the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough of Montreal, located on the east end on the island. Falsified legal documents and also a radio wave jammer had been seized. The burglary in Montreal had taken place a couple of weeks before, on May 2nd, 2019. Among the suspects arrested included;
- Mora Parada
- Alba Rocha
- Lopez Salazar
- Serrato Luque
- Reina Camelo
- Gomez Millan
- Rojas Rojas
Five of the previously mentioned had taken part in the Montreal burglary on May 2nd, 2019 and April 15th, 2019. The Ahuntsic-Cartierville robbery had yielded the thieves nearly 200,000$. SPVM launched an investigation which eventually led to the arrests on May 3rd, the day after the Ahuntsic-Cartierville robbery. This investigation was a joint effort with the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA).
These are the recent actions of the group in the East End of Canada, but there are numerous stories in the United States that reveal this group operates with a surprising amount of ‘cells’. It’s no secret, that this group precisely plans their robberies or their break-ins and have a roster of numerous thieves.
