![\"Miguel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GuzmanPardo.jpg\")
Miguel Guzman-Pardo (Photo by Carl Hessler Jr. \u2013 MediaNews Group)<\/p>\nNORRISTOWN \u2014 A Chilean national, believed to be a member of an organized burglary crew that targeted homes as part of a growing national trend known as \u201cSouth American Theft Groups\u201d was sent to an American prison after he admitted to break-ins at two homes in Lower Merion Township.<\/p>\n
Miguel Angel Guzman-Pardo, 45, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 20 to 48 months in a state correctional institution after he pleaded guilty to two felony charges of burglary in connection with two break-ins that occurred in the township in October 2023.<\/p>\n
Guzman-Pardo, who claimed he was brought across the U.S. border from Mexico by kidnappers who forced him to commit burglaries in multiple states, will be deported to Chile after he serves the sentence.<\/p>\n
Miguel Guzman-Pardo (Photo by Carl Hessler Jr. \u2013 MediaNews Group)<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat this case is not about is immigration. This case is about an individual committing burglaries. This case is about victims. The individuals had a right to feel secure in their homes,\u201d said Judge Steven T. O\u2019Neill, adding he found Guzman-Pardo\u2019s claims of how he came to be in the U.S. to be \u201cincredulous\u201d given there was no evidence to support those claims.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe community is affected each time one of these burglaries occurs,\u201d O\u2019Neill added.<\/p>\n
Assistant District Attorney Tanner Christian Beck, who argued for a lengthy prison term for Guzman-Pardo, pointed out the Chilean national never made claims of being kidnapped to police after he was apprehended.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike any of these South American Theft Group burglary ring cases, they strike fear in our community. They impact not just the victims that this happens too but everyone else that lives in that neighborhood, who no longer feel safe in their homes and don\u2019t feel safe, quite frankly, leaving their homes to go out to dinner or go to work,\u201d Beck said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always going to be in the back of their mind that when they leave their home there could be a group like this watching it, waiting to break in and steal their items,\u201d Beck added.<\/p>\n
Specifically, with his guilty plea, Guzman-Pardo admitted that he, and unidentified co-conspirators, entered an unoccupied home in the 700 block of Eagle Farm Road at about 7:29 p.m. Oct. 26, 2023, by smashing a door, ransacked the home and stole about $16,325 in jewelry. The total damage to the home was about $22,535, prosecutors alleged.<\/p>\n
Detectives ultimately linked Guzman-Pardo to the burglary through DNA that was lifted from a flathead screwdriver that he left behind at the scene.<\/p>\n
About 45 minutes after the Eagle Farm Road burglary, at 8:15 p.m., Guzman-Pardo and his unidentified co-conspirators, smashed a window to enter an unoccupied residence in the 1300 block of Hearthstone Lane, ransacked the home and made off with jewelry valued at $50. The total damage to the home was about $1,177.<\/p>\n
Authorities were unable to identify the other conspirators.<\/p>\n
![\"Miguel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GuzmanMiguel.jpg\")
Miguel Guzman-Pardo is escorted by a deputy sheriff from a Montgomery County courtroom to begin prison term. (Photo by Carl Hessler Jr. \u2013 MediaNews Group)<\/p>\n
The judge said Guzman-Pardo is responsible for $40,087 in restitution.<\/p>\n
Speaking with the assistance of a Spanish interpreter, Guzman-Pardo told the judge, \u201cI completely regret everything. I hope everybody forgives me, including Montgomery County. I really regret everything and really want to apologize to everyone that I hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guzman-Pardo claimed he left Chile with the goal to seek asylum and \u201cThe American Dream\u201d in the U.S. and made it as far as Mexico when he was kidnapped by members of a cartel.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Mexico they don\u2019t play around. I didn\u2019t want to die,\u201d said Guzman-Pardo, adding his wife back in Chile was three months pregnant.<\/p>\n
Guzman-Pardo claimed kidnappers took him across the border to locations in California, Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania where under duress and threats of being killed he committed burglaries, feeling he had no other options.<\/p>\n
Last August, while Guzman-Pardo was awaiting court action for the Lower Merion burglaries, he pleaded guilty to a separate charge of burglary in Delaware County Court in connection with an Oct. 27, 2023, break-in at a home along Brooke Farm Road in Radnor Township. Guzman-Pardo served a sentence of 11\u00bd to 23 months in county jail in that case. DNA analysis of blood found on a pillowcase also linked Guzman Pardo to the Radnor Township burglary, according to court documents.<\/p>\n
![\"Miguel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GPardo.jpg\")
Miguel Guzman-Pardo is escorted by a deputy sheriff from a Montgomery County courtroom to begin prison term. (Photo by Carl Hessler Jr. \u2013 MediaNews Group)<\/p>\n
\u201cMy client is remorseful,\u201d said defense lawyer Carey Jensen, who sought a mitigated sentence for Guzman-Pardo, arguing he did not have a leading role in the criminal organization and was simply doing what others told him to do.<\/p>\n
Guzman-Pardo said he wants to go back to Chile and never to return to the U.S. He added he learned his son had died and he never got to meet him.<\/p>\n
In recent years, federal, state and local law enforcement authorities have identified a nationwide trend of residential burglaries committed by organized criminal enterprises known as \u201cSouth American Theft Groups.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the FBI, the term refers to groups of foreign nationals of South American descent who enter the U.S. illegally or overstay their visas and who commit residential or commercial burglaries. The members typically rely on fake IDs and documents and rental vehicles while committing their \u201csmash and grab\u201d style burglaries, investigators said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seen patterns over the last four to five years. This isn\u2019t just a Montgomery County problem, it\u2019s across the country,\u201d Beck said previously.<\/p>\n
As a result of the burglaries, a regional task force was established that included investigators from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Since January 2021, there have been more than 100 such burglaries in the task force area, including more than 50 in Montgomery County, according to a criminal complaint filed by Lower Merion Detective Gregory Pitchford.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the course of this investigation, task force detectives linked these burglaries through DNA evidence, cellphone records and specific, unique and well-established modus operandi to similar burglaries that have been committed throughout the United States,\u201d Pitchford alleged in court documents.<\/p>\n
That modus operandi typically includes targeting affluent neighborhoods and suspects conducting surveillance and research on victims\u2019 homes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NORRISTOWN \u2014 A Chilean national, believed to be a member of an organized burglary crew that targeted homes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[46,182,183,185,184,186,139,28,1015],"class_list":["post-155509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lower-merion","tag-courts","tag-local-news","tag-lower-merion","tag-lower-merion-headlines","tag-lower-merion-news","tag-lower-merion-township","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-mer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}