Crime
Groups—and
their signatures
-
South
American Theft Groups (SATGs), mainly
Colombians, but also Peruvian, Chilean, and Ecuadorian
groups, usually in the U.S. illegally with false identification:
Robberies of traveling salespersons. In the early 1980s,
SATGs were involved in distraction type thefts or burglaries
of hotel rooms and automobiles, including when jewelry
representatives were attending jewelry trade shows.
Today SATGs are primarily engaged in highly organized
international violent robberies of traveling jewelry
salespersons and distraction/scam thefts from retail
jewelry stores, rarely targeting stores. SATGs are
based primarily in Atlanta, New York City, Miami, Los
Angeles, Houston, and Chicago. Members are 20 years
old and up and include males and females. They are
highly mobile, moving from city to city and country
to country in search of victims and committing multiple
robberies across jurisdictions. SATGs are more violent
than other groups, often using guns and/or knives to
commit their jewelry crimes. They also used sophisticated
equipment, conducting multi-vehicle physical surveillance
and counter-surveillance, and developing their own "informants" within
the jewelry industry to target salespersons and businesses.
- African-American
groups: violent jewelry robberies of jewelry or department
stores, using armed
robbery grab-and-run, sneak theft, smash-and-grab,
diamond-switch or distraction techniques.
- Yugoslavia,
Albania, Croatia and Serbia (YACS) gangs: robberies
of jewelry stores.
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