Police: 4 men from Chile charged in Oakland County jewelry stores robberies

Four men from Chile were charged last week in connection with robberies and assaults at two jewelry stores in Oakland County, according to police in Auburn Hills and Troy.

The charges, involving retail stores, don't match the scenario of "transnational gangs" targeting upscale houses, as described in a recent warning by Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard.

On Thursday, Oct. 5, President Joe Biden said he was suspending federal regulations to allow adding about 20 more miles to the controversial border wall begun by the Trump administration, although Biden said he was required by law to approve the construction and did so reluctantly. On Oct. 1, the governor of New York, a Democrat, told CBS’s “Face the Nation” she strongly favored a tighter border.

“It is too open right now,’’ Gov. Kathy Hochul said of the U.S. border with Mexico, where an estimated 200,000 to 260,000 migrants entered the U.S. in September alone, according to national reports.

On Sept. 29, Bouchard issued a warning about migrants that made national news in conservative media. Bouchard warned of “transnational gangs” of migrants, which he said were breaking into upscale houses that back up to golf courses and wooded areas in Oakland County and elsewhere, although he said he couldn’t reveal whether any such suspects had been arrested in metro Detroit.

The four Chilean men arraigned last week in Oakland County have been charged with crimes that don’t fit Bouchard’s scenario but their arrests still add to unease about migrants. The four were charged with armed robbery, felonious assault, and malicious destruction at two jewelry retailers. The charges came after two smash-and-grab strikes, one at the MJ Diamonds store inside Great Lakes Crossing Outlets in Auburn Hills at 4:30 p.m. on Aug. 11, a second at the jewelry department inside Macy’s at Oakland Mall in Troy at 5:42 p.m. on Aug. 24, according to Auburn Hills police. There were no firearms seen at the robberies, but the masked suspects assaulted store employees with pepper spray, then smashed display cases with hammers, Auburn Hills police said in a news release.

Three individuals were each charged with five counts of armed robbery, five counts of felonious assault, and two counts of malicious destruction: Hernan Parraquez-Modoca, Michael Aguilar-Mondaca, and Sandrino Rojas-Palma. A fourth suspect, Nicholas Caceres-Henriquez, was charged with two counts of armed robbery, two counts of felonious assault, and one count of malicious destruction. They range in age from 21 to 27.

Auburn Hills Deputy Chief Scott McGraw said the four had been living in Pontiac. McGraw gave this account of how they were arrested:

Officers who investigated the robbery at Great Lakes Crossing Outlets decided the likely getaway vehicle was a black Kia Soul. Its ownership was traced to Aguilar-Mondaca. Those officers notified the FBI/Oakland County Gang and Violent Crime Task Force, whose members include investigators from Auburn Hills and Troy police. They began conducting surveillance at Oakland Mall. Surveillance on Aug. 24 showed three subjects, all wearing masks, arriving in a black Kia Soul to enter Macy’s. After dropping off the three, the Kia's driver sped away and entered northbound Interstate 75, where he parked on the freeway shoulder directly across from the Macy’s store entrance.

When the masked trio reached Macy’s jewelry counter, they pepper-sprayed employees, smashed display cases, grabbed jewelry, then ran out of the store and across the parking lot, “and they jumped the freeway fence" to reach the waiting Kia, McGraw said. Quickly, members of the FBI/Oakland County Task Force together with Troy officers “moved into position ahead of the attempted escape” to block the vehicle and, without a struggle, arrested the four suspects.

“I would guess they’re not citizens of the U.S.,” McGraw said. Federal immigration officials have placed a detainer on the four, he said. A detainer is a written request that local police hold an individual for 48 hours after his or her scheduled release from jail, allowing agents of U.S. Customs and Immigration the option to take the individual into federal custody. The four men have been housed at the Oakland County Jail after Magistrate Lewis Langham at 52-1 District Court in Novi denied bond for each of them.

Troy police Chief Frank Nastasi, in a statement, said he joined Chief Ryan Gagnon of Auburn Hills police in recognizing the excellent police work of the two departments, together with the FBI, to make the arrests of “these brazen criminals.”

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In the days before the Oakland County sheriff issued his warning about gangs of migrant thieves, a nationwide coalition of sheriff departments — the American Sheriff Alliance — met in San Diego to issue a “call for action at the border due to the heightened threat picture,” the group said in a news release. The release said that the swelling torrent of migrants had brought a 906% increase in “individuals found to be on the Terrorist Watch List” since 2017, “and there are still three months left in 2023” to increase that number. The group's release also said that migrants are bringing a flood of other law enforcement problems, including drugs tainted with fentanyl and other adulterants, leading to the deaths of hundreds of Americans daily.

Among the groups in the American Sheriff Alliance is the Major County Sheriffs of America, to which belong the Michigan sheriff's departments of Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, and Kent counties. Bouchard is the group's longtime vice president for government affairs.

Contact Bill Laytner: blaitner@freepress.com

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Oakland County charges men from Chile as border worries mount