“Well-trained … ninjas” from Chile are burglarizing wealthy Americans in the Detroit, Michigan, suburbs after using the Visa Waiver Program to get into the United States, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard says.
In an interview with FOX 2 Detroit, Bouchard sounded the alarm yet again on the rise of foreign burglary gangs from South America operating across the U.S. — including in the Detroit suburbs where wealthy residents are being targeted for their money, jewelry, and designer handbags.
“The Chilean gangs have been hitting us very hard. Cash, jewelry, very high-end purses, that’s the target,” Bouchard said:
They’re super well-trained when they get here, highly organized, they look like ninjas. They’re all masked up, gloves, they each have a backpack with each particular set of tools for their job in the burglary. [Emphasis added]
The issue has become such a rising problem in the Detroit suburbs that Bouchard has created a task force dedicated to weeding out foreign burglary gangs.
“In the last three or four days, we’ve had a number of super, super similar … [cases],” Bouchard said. “The home is empty, very large, upscale homes, the area is backed up to little-or-no observation from neighborhoods.”
In one instance, a Chilean burglary gang stole $800,000 worth of jewelry and cash from a home in the Detroit suburbs. Bouchard said no particular location is being targeted. Instead, the gangs target mansions when wealthy occupants are out of town.
“All the intelligence estimates suggest from Chile. We have 100+ teams in operation right now in America, teams of four and six,” Bouchard said.
The foreign burglary gangs, as Breitbart News has chronicled, often use the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) to get into the U.S. The VWP allows these foreign nationals to bypass having to obtain a visa to secure entry to the U.S., instead getting to stay in the country for up to 90 days visa-free.
Bouchard said lawmakers in Washington, DC, ought to remove Chile from the VWP. In Fiscal Year 2022, nearly 85,000 foreign nationals who arrived in the U.S. on the VWP had overstayed their allotted 90 days — including more than 10,300 from Chile.
Since 1986, every presidential administration has continued expanding the VWP despite security warnings detailed in the 9/11 Commission Staff Report. In 2019, for instance, former President Trump expanded the VWP to include Poland. In 2021, President Joe Biden expanded the VWP to include Croatia and in 2023, allowed Israel into the VWP.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
