A gang of Colombian migrants made off with millions of dollars worth of gems in heists in several states, funneling their booty to a Putnam Valley jewelry peddler who melted down and fenced the gold, federal prosecutors said this week.
The “South American Theft Group” operated in Florida, Georgia, California and elsewhere targeting traveling jewelry salespeople, and stores, from September 2019 to August 2021, authorities said.
Their biggest score came in February 2020, when they robbed as much as $2.6 million in merchandise from a traveling jewelry salesperson in Boynton Beach, FL, court records show. The year before, they nabbed $730,000 in jewelry during a September theft from a car in Boca Raton, FL, and $125,000 during a November robbery in Miami Beach.
All the stolen merchandise was unloaded to Mark Simon, a Westchester County resident who allegedly paid cut-rate prices in cash and often traveled to Florida to meet them in hotel rooms, prosecutors said.
Simon, 56, allegedly paid just just $16,000 for $1 million in baubles stolen in a Dalton, GA, burglary, according to prosecutors and court records.
Simon was arrested Wednesday at his home in Jefferson Valley on the charges of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments and released on $50,000 bond, records show. He pleaded not guilty.
It’s unclear if any of the thieves, who were not publicly identified, have been arrested or deported.
South American Theft groups have committed brazen crimes around the country, including the December robbery at Cinncinati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow’s Ohio home, where a trio of Chilean thieves allegedly stole $300,000 in luxury goods.
A similar gang is believed to have been behind October burglaries at the homes of Kansas City Chiefs stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.
In November, six illegal migrants who were part of a South American Theft Group used saws to break into a jewelry store on Long Island and were later nabbed — only to flee after five of them were freed on bail, with some of the suspects using the saws to cut off ankle monitors they’d received.
Simon is involved in both retail and wholesale jewelry sales, said his lawyer, Jeffrey Chartier.
“If you’re in the wholesale business, you search out the best prices for products,” Chartier said while maintaining his client’s innocence.
