Sophisticated gangs of migrant robbers and burglars armed with radio jammers that disrupt both police communications and wireless alarm systems are targeting jewelry stores and homes in upscale US neighborhoods— and making off with millions of dollars in loot as they move from city to city.
Gold jewelry is a favorite target because, once melted down, it's impossible to trace, but the gangs will take any high-end items they can easily cart off and fence.
Members of the gangs, often classified by US law enforcement as “South American Theft Groups,” also work with US citizens after they enter the country.
These transnational criminals have been linked to over $100 million in combined commercial and residential theft operations nationwide, according to testimony before the US Senate last year. Their crimes have been reported in multiple states, including Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, California, Florida and New York.
In February, a member of one of these groups - consisting of six Americans and five Colombians pleaded guilty to participating in a series of robberies in South Florida that netted them more than $5 million dollars worth of jewelry.
In May, three Chileans and a Venezuelan were indicted in Wisconsin for committing more than a dozen burglaries that stretched from that state to Minnesota and Florida, involving more than a million dollars worth of stolen jewelry, firearms, precious metals, rare coins, and cash.
But it is the radio signal jammers used by these gangs that concerns police most.
The jammers are (unfortunately) easy to buy online and are illegal to manufacture, market, and possess (with good reason).
During a 2025 Southern California jewelry store burglary, a gang disrupted 911 and internet service to more than a million customers (including several hospitals) after switching on their jammers, then cutting fiber-optic cables and phone lines for good measure.
Their jammers, like the ones pictured above, are often left behind while still activated as the gang escapes with its loot, causing long-lasting interference with police radio and wireless alarm frequencies until authorities discover and disable them.
The methods the gangs use in these jewelry store burglaries are consistent.
Once the burglars jam police radio and wireless alarm frequencies, they cut through the roof, as shown in the crime scene photo above, taken after a 2025 burglary in Glendale, California.
After breaking in, they cut into the safe and grab the store’s most valuable inventory.
The photos above document the theft of more than $1 million in jewelry.
The seven gang members suspected in this theft - described as an “International Burglary Ring’ by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office - were arrested a month later while breaking into another jewelry store in a neighboring city.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is fighting back.
A Chinese retailer that marketed 285 models of illegal signal jammers to U.S. consumers has been fined $34.9 million, and this month the FCC announced $25,000 in fines against three men arrested during a 2025 jewelry store robbery in Irving, Texas, where a jammer disrupted the radios of responding police officers.
Are you concerned about the use of radio jammers by these gangs?
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Abrazos,
Jack Beavers
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