Four men allegedly stole $100,000 worth of belongings from a home in Westlake Village in an organized burglary last week, police said.
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said Monday it expects to find additional victims, though none have yet been identified. The office believes the group responsible is part of a “transnational organized crime burglary crew” that is associated with at least one similar crime in Southern California, Det. Brian Koruda said in an email.
On May 5, a person returned to their Westlake Village home and found that the house had been ransacked and multiple things had been stolen. California Highway Patrol officers spotted one of the cars connected to the burglary in the Calabasas area and chased it until the car stopped and three people got out and ran. All three were eventually found and arrested. Los Angeles police stopped another suspect vehicle and arrested the driver.
A search of the suspects’ cars revealed things connecting the four men to the burglary, the sheriff’s office said.
Javier Ricardo Pulido Ramirez, 41, Diego Cuervo, 39, Sergio Alejandro Paez Cuervo, 27, and Jesus Miguel Velez Hernandez, 35, were booked on charges of residential burglary and conspiracy to commit a crime. Bail has been set at $500,000 for all of them.
For the last couple of years at least, groups of international thieves have been traveling to Southern California and burglarizing homes and stores before absconding back to their home countries. Several groups have been caught, including in Ventura County.
