Prosecutors Charge Man They Say Is Tied to Burglary of Joe Burrow’s Home
A Georgian man charged with buying and reselling stolen watches, handbags and other luxury items in Manhattan’s Diamond District is linked to a group believed to have burglarized the home of Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, according to a person with knowledge of the case.
The man, Dimitriy Nezhinskiy, and another suspect, Juan Villar, were accused of running a fencing operation for South American gangs that have burglarized more than a dozen homes across the United States, according to an indictment unsealed in the Eastern District of New York on Tuesday.
It was unclear whether either man had legal representation. Both were set to appear in Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday afternoon.
The burglary at Mr. Burrow’s Cincinnati-area house was believed to be one in a string of break-ins at multimillion-dollar homes in Ohio in which four Chilean men were charged last month.
The Ohio attorney general’s office has not confirmed that the men were involved in robbing the home of Mr. Burrow, who played college football at Louisiana State University. But an affidavit prepared by the Clark County sheriff’s office said “an old L.S.U. shirt and Bengals hat” had been found during the traffic stop that led to the men’s arrests.
The arrests in Ohio came amid a broader federal investigation into burglaries by South America-based crime groups at pricey homes across the United States, according to the affidavit. Investigators “have arrested at least six different South American burglary groups, five of which were Chilean nationals,” the affidavit said. The men charged in the Ohio case were either in the United States illegally or had “overstayed their permissions,” according to the affidavit.
At least nine professional athletes’ homes were burglarized by “international organized theft groups, often emanating from South America,” between September and November of 2024, according to a report sent to sports leagues by the F.B.I. and obtained by The New York Times. Those targeted include the Kansas City Chiefs players Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce and the N.B.A. players Bobby Portis, Karl-Anthony Towns and Mike Conley Jr.
The groups have typically broken into athletes’ homes when they are playing away games, and they target high-end goods, including designer handbags and jewelry, according to the authorities.
From 2022 to 2024, an undercover investigator facilitated the “controlled sale” of stolen luxury items to Mr. Nezhinskiy and Mr. Villar in Manhattan, according to federal prosecutors. Prosecutors said that phone records and video evidence tied Mr. Nezhinskiy to at least two members of the Ohio group.
Investigators on Tuesday seized dozens of luxury items from a pawnshop in the Diamond District that prosecutors said was the two men’s illegal business. At the same time, the authorities recovered sports memorabilia, wine and other merchandise from New Jersey storage units belonging to Mr. Nezhinskiy, along with tools they said matched those often used in burglaries.
On Tuesday evening, a small crowd of reporters and onlookers gathered on the sidewalk at 47th Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. Yellow police tape blocked off a section of sidewalk and scaffolding. Men in blue F.B.I. jackets stood, coffees in hand, outside a large black van.
Richard Winick, owner of Manny Winick & Son, a nearby jewelry business, said the police had shut down part of the block early Tuesday morning. He said that dealers who buy secondhand jewelry with an unknown origin are expected to hold it for two weeks before reselling it to the public, along with filing photos and description of the items with the authorities.
Rob Bates, a journalist who has covered the Diamond District for 30 years, said that the jewelry industry had been plagued by South American gangs robbing jewelry dealers and civilians.
“The Diamond District is probably a good place to pawn jewelry because you’re less conspicuous and there’s such a large volume of businesses and product,” Mr. Bates said.
Maia Coleman, Ed Shanahan and Corey Kilgannon contributed reporting.
