NEW YORK — Two men are charged with running a fencing operation for South American groups that burglarized high-profile athletes, including Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow.
John J. Durham, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a release Dimitriy Nezhinskiy and Juan Villar were indicted Tuesday after officials said they spent nearly five years selling "stolen luxury items" at their pawn shop in Manhattan's Diamond District after purchasing them from burglary crews.
The release says the two received and purchased jewelry, handbags and other items stolen outside the state of New York, serving as "fences" for crews out of South America who traveled the U.S. to burglarize wealthy neighborhoods or jewelry vendors. The U.S. Attorney's Office specifically notes phone records and video surveillance link Nezhinskiy with two members of a "four-man burglary crew" believed to be involved in the "Dec. 9, 2024 burglary of a high-profile athlete in Ohio."
Four Chilean men were arrested in January in connection to a burglary in Hamilton County on Dec. 9, the same day Burrow's Anderson Township home was broken into.
An affidavit says an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper on Jan. 10 pulled over a car with Florida tags that committed a lane violation on I-70 after investigators had been conducting surveillance on the occupants. Inside the car, per the affidavit and body camera footage, was an old LSU t-shirt and Bengals hat believed to have been stolen in a Hamilton County burglary on Dec. 9.
Watch video from their arrests here:
All four of the men inside — later identified as 22-year-old Jordan Sanchez, 23-year-old Bastian Morales, 38-year-old Sergio Cabello and 24-year-old Alexander Huaiquil-Chavez — were indicted for engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, participating in a criminal gang and possessing criminal tools.
During a search of Nezhinskiy and Villar's business, law enforcement found dozens of watches and jewelry believed to have been stolen. Inside Nezhinskiy's storage units, officials also found high-end bags, sports memorabilia and power tools used to burglarize or open safes.
