They found wedding rings, luxury watches, jewelry and family heirlooms — 700 pieces of stolen property estimated to be worth about $1 million. Authorities made the haul after executing search warrants throughout Northern and Central California, recovering items police say were stolen by a sophisticated ring of burglars who targeted Bay Area Asian American households. At a news conference Wednesday, San José officials announced the arrests of three people suspected of being members of that ring.
Authorities linked the suspects to nearly 80 burglaries since June in West San José, Cupertino, Saratoga, Campbell and Mountain View. “This is a good day after many months of bad news, of fear, frustration and anger,” San José Mayor Matt Mahan said. “For roughly six months, our AAPI community in the West San José region has lived in fear as home after home has been broken into and residents have wondered if they were next.
” Alberto Ibarra Vallejo, 25; Gonzalo Valencia Ramos, 28; and Jaime Martinez Arroyo, 46, were arrested Jan. 16 by San José police detectives and special operations team members, who were assisted by Stockton police SWAT officers, according to San José Police Chief Paul Joseph. Calls to representatives of the accused were not returned.
Each is being held without bail, and all are due back in court Feb. 3. Joseph counted 78 burglaries, including 30 in San José, 20 in Mountain View, 18 in Cupertino and Saratoga and 10 in Campbell.
The trio were ch.
