(The Center Square) – A trio of men from Chile who are believed to be illegally in the United States have been arrested and charged for a series of home burglaries in the Milwaukee suburbs.
All are being held in Waukesha County jail with hearings scheduled for Wednesday.
The men face multiple felony charges. Enjerbet A. Rojas Silva, Luciano A. Silva Cifuentes and Leandro F. Pino Uribe were all charged with burglary of a building or dwelling and possession of burglarious tools.
The Mequon Police Department sent out a warning about burglaries in November which alerted the public to coordinated property thefts at area homes during the early evening hours on Thursdays through Sundays.
“We are working closely with the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office and our other law enforcement partners to determine whether the individuals that were arrested by WCSO may be connected to the burglaries that occurred in the City of Mequon,” Mequon Police Operations Commander John Hoell told TCS on Monday. “Our priority is keeping the community informed while also ensuring a thorough and successful investigation. To protect the integrity of this ongoing work, no additional information is available at this time. We appreciate the community’s patience and cooperation.”
The criminal complaint said the investigation began with a home jewelry theft in Delafield where 100 pieces of jewelry were reported missing, according to the Waukesha Freeman.
Police were able to locate the subjects through a tower dump where they were able to identify phone numbers or devices used near the burglary sites.
A group of four international numbers appeared in both Delafield and Mequon during the burglaries, according to the complaint.
The numbers were found to move across the country regularly but were believed to originate in Florida, the newspaper reported.
The phone numbers and new phone numbers from the group were linked to burglaries in Mendota Heights and Edina along with Fox Point, De Pere and Middleton, according to the complaint.
A white Nissan Rogue believed by prosecutors to be driven by the suspects was found to travel regularly between Florida and Wisconsin. The group was then arrested Wednesday by Waukesha County Sheriff’s deputies along I-43 in Mukwonago.
The suspects were found with a Dewalt Sawzall, 13 red Diablo Sawzall blades, and 26 block radio antennas resembling those used in Wi-Fi signal jammers, along with window punchers similar to those used to break patio doors in the burglaries and multiple fraudulent IDs and passports, according to the newspaper.
Prior to publication, TCS was unsuccessful getting a copy of the criminal complaint by contacting the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office, district attorney’s office or clerk of the court.
