More details have come to light about the burglaries of six high-profile athletes.
Months after players, including Kansas City Chiefs’ Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes, as well as Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow, were victims of burglaries at their respective homes, federal prosecutors charged seven men in connection to the break-ins, according to documents obtained by NBC News.
The criminal complaint by the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida—filed Jan. 30 and unsealed Feb. 18—added three more defendants to the four previously indicted by a grand jury in connection with the burglaries that added up to over $2 million of stolen goods. Prosecutors charged the men, all of whom are from Chile, with conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property.
The first four defendants arrested Jan. 22 included Bastian Alejandro Morales, 23; Sergio Andres Cabello, 38; JordanFrancisco Sanchez, 22; and Alejandro Esteban Huaiquil-Chavez, 24. The most recent additions were Pablo Zuniga Cartes, 24; Ignacio Zuniga Cartes, 20; and AlexanderHuiaguil Chavez, 24.
Morales, Cabello, Sanches and Chavez had pleaded not guilty to initial charges, which included participating in a criminal gang, engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, obstructing official business and possession of criminal tools, according to court records obtained by NBC News.
Although Burrow, Kelce and Mahomes were not specifically named in the Jan. 30 complaint, the dates and locations coincided with the break-ins reported at their homes. Two Chiefs football players whose respective homes—where the total value of stolen property at each was greater than $5,000—were burglarized Oct. 5 and Oct. 7.
Meanwhile, a Bengals NFL player was burglarized Dec. 9 and had “designer luggage, glasses, watches and jewelry valued at about $300,000” taken from his residence one day after the football player flew to Dallas, according to the filing.
Other athletes included a Tampa Bay Buccaneers player ($167,000 worth of jewelry, watches, a firearm and a suitcase), a basketball player on the Milwaukee Bucks ($1.48 million worth of watches, chains, personal items, jewelry and cash), and one on the Memphis Grizzlies ($1 million worth of jewelry, watches and luxury bags).
All of the burglaries occurred while the victim was participating in a game. The documents also included a selfie of the defendants donning watches and a necklace allegedly stolen from one of the locations.
If convicted, the seven men could each face up to 10 years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida confirmed in a Feb. 18 press release.
E! News is out for comment to legal representatives of the defendants.
For the athletes, however, the stolen objects were the least of their concerns.
“So obviously everybody has heard what has happened,” Burrow said during a press conference days after the break-in, which was reported to police by model Olivia Ponton. “I feel like my privacy has been violated in more ways than one.”
The Bengals quarterback emphasized that “way more is already out there than I would want out there and that I care to share, so that’s all I got to say about that.”
“We live a public life and one of my least favorite parts of that is the lack of privacy,” he continued. “That has been difficult for me to deal with my entire career. Still learning. But I understand it’s the life that we choose. Doesn’t make it any easier to deal with.”
(E! News and NBC News are part of the NBCUniversal family.)
