At least seven border crossers, all from Venezuela, were arrested in the sanctuary state of Illinois over the Thanksgiving holiday for allegedly shoplifting from various stores.
The first incident, days before Thanksgiving on November 16, saw 18-year-old Neikis Yeimily Salazar and 23-year-old Alexander Saul Martinez Lima arrested and each charged with one count of felony retail theft after allegedly shoplifting Christmas items at a Hobby Lobby in Deerfield, Illinois.
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According to police, the two Venezuelan border crossers entered the Hobby Lobby and loaded nearly $900 worth of Christmas items into their shopping carts before allegedly leaving the store without paying for the items.
When police responded to the report of shoplifting, the pair had been pushing the shopping carts to a nearby motel. Eventually, officers recovered 104 Christmas items that the border crossers had allegedly stolen.
After being charged, Salazar and Lima were each released from jail and are due back in court on December 29.
In a separate incident in Elmhurst, Illinois, 37-year-old Ilys Mary Ledesma Zapata, 21-year-old Christian Johan Saavedra-Omona, and 33-year-old Braud Pineda Avendano — all newly arrived border crossers from Venezuela — were arrested and each charged with one count of felony burglary and one count of retail theft.
According to DuPage County prosecutors, the three border crossers shoplifted from a Kohl’s store more than $500 worth of items on November 24. When police arrested the trio for shoplifting at the store, they recovered a large magnet device on Ledesma Zapata used to get around anti-theft technology.
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Ledesma Zapata, Saavedra-Omona, and Pineda Avendano were released from jail despite DuPage County prosecutors asking them to be detained because they posed a flight risk. They are due back in court on December 13.
In a third incident, on November 25, 27-year-old Lenguieyer Guevara-Muro and 20-year-old Jinder Moises Angulo-Aparicio were arrested and each charged with one count of felony burglary and one count of retail theft after allegedly shoplifting at a Macy’s store.
The pair, both newly arrived border crossers from Venezuela, are accused of stealing nearly $800 worth of clothing from the Macy’s store and filling a foil-lined bag with the items. The border crossers then left the store but were quickly approached by officers who had to bring Guevara-Muro to the ground because he resisted arrest.
“For the second day in a row, my office has filed charges against individuals from Venezuela accused of stealing merchandise from a retail store,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said in a statement.
While Guevara-Muro remains in local custody ahead of trial, Angulo-Aparicio was released from jail and his next court date is December 18. Guevara-Muro’s next court date is December 11.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
