![\"Seven](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779354315_654_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nSeven people have been charged in connection with a surge in residential burglaries in the San Fernando Valley carried out by \u201cbrazen, calculated and predatory\u201d crews of thieves, authorities said.<\/p>\n
The suspects are accused of participating in at least 20 home burglaries, making off with wallets, high-end handbags, watches, jewelry and more, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney\u2019s office. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese defendants are accused of prowling neighborhoods, smashing their way into homes and stealing from families who were left shaken and violated,\u201d said Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman in a statement. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Police said stolen goods and burglary tools were collected in the operation that led to multiple arrests.<\/p>\n
(Los Angeles County district attorney\u2019s office)<\/p>\n
Although organized burglary crews targeting residential homes<\/a> is a long-standing problem in Los Angeles, there was an upswing in incidents<\/a> in the San Fernando Valley and surrounding areas last month, with thieves striking nine homes<\/a> in a one-week period alone. In response, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass directed the Los Angeles Police Department to increase patrols<\/a> along Ventura Boulevard, a hot spot for burglaries.<\/p>\n L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna said the recently arrested suspects conducted extensive research of properties and attempted to conceal their crimes using burner phones and cars rented under fraudulent identities.<\/p>\n Luna, at a news conference Wednesday, noted that organized burglary crews \u201care increasingly targeting affluent neighborhoods and often select homes near golf courses, parks and hiking trails and open space areas that provide easier access and escape routes.\u201d<\/p>\n Last month, L.A. Police Chief Jim McDonnell said that many of these residential burglaries<\/a> are tied to theft rings from South America<\/a> as well as groups based in South L.A. He said crews use similar tools such as hidden cameras to determine when residents leave their homes, Wi-Fi jammers to disrupt home security systems and ladders to get inside homes through second-floor windows.<\/p>\n The LAPD, L.A. County Sheriff\u2019s Department and Ventura County Sheriff\u2019s Department worked collaboratively to apprehend the seven alleged thieves.<\/p>\n Byron Gonz\u00e1lo S\u00e1ez Sotomayor is accused of burglarizing or attempting to burglarize 18 homes in the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles, often targeting multiple residences in a single evening, prosecutors said. He was arrested while allegedly fleeing from a burglary in the Beverlywood area on May 4.<\/p>\n The 27-year-old has pleaded not guilty to 15 counts of residential burglary, three counts of attempted residential burglary and one count of grand theft of a firearm. He is being held in lieu of $1.4-million bail and faces 26 years in state prison if convicted as charged.<\/p>\n Christopher Sanchez, 26, Owen Rivera-Chacon, 24, and Edisson Fabian Boyaca, 27, were arrested May 1 during a surveillance operation into the suspected burglary crew in Santa Clarita, prosecutors said. They have each been charged with one felony count of residential burglary, and Rivera-Chacon faces allegations of a prior-strike conviction for residential burglary. <\/p>\n Jewelry was gathered as evidence in the arrests of seven suspected San Fernando Valley burglars.<\/p>\n (Los Angeles County district attorney\u2019s office)<\/p>\n They have all pleaded not guilty. If convicted as charged, Sanchez and Boyaca each face six years in state prison, while Rivera-Chacon faces 17 years in state prison.<\/p>\n The final three alleged thieves \u2014 identified as Wilmar Santiago Castelblanco-Robles, 20, Alan Rolando Rodriguez-Pulido, 34, and Cristian Rios-Cuadros, 24, \u2014 were arrested April 26 when neighbors saw Rios-Cuadros and Castelblanco-Robles breaking into a Burbank home and called police, prosecutors said. The pair fled on foot, police said, and were apprehended by officers, while Rodriguez-Pulido was arrested nearby while driving a suspected getaway vehicle. <\/p>\n They are each charged with one felony county of residential burglary and face six years in state prison if convicted as charged. Castelblanco-Robles and Rios-Cuadros pleaded not guilty, while Rodriguez-Pulido is scheduled for a mental competency hearing June 16.<\/p>\n \u201cResidential burglaries strike at the heart of people\u2019s sense of safety, and we are responding with precision, urgency, and coordination,\u201d said McDonnell in a statement Wednesday. \u201cThe LAPD will continue to pursue organized burglary crews relentlessly until our neighborhoods are secure.\u201d<\/p>\n Times staff writers Rong-Gong Lin II and Salvador Hernandez contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seven people have been charged in connection with a surge in residential burglaries in the San Fernando Valley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[135583,5744,135582,1073,119044,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,290,135581,236,7214,135580,7611,35387,8041,72],"class_list":["post-325955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-area-last-month","tag-count","tag-cristian-rios-cuadros","tag-home","tag-home-burglary","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-neighborhood","tag-organized-burglary-crew","tag-police","tag-prosecutor","tag-residential-burglary-surge","tag-san-fernando-valley","tag-state-prison","tag-thief","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Seven](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779354315_881_.jpeg\")
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