Start Date: May 4, 2025

Home robberies in Los Angeles have been escalating in frequency and intensity over the decades. Twenty years ago a midday walk in the San Fernando Valley could be safely taken with a side door left unlocked. That ended some time ago. Criminal groups began scoping out homes to detect patterns of presence and absence. They enter quietly when residents are out, take things, and leave discreetly. There was a a similar uptick in organized car theft. It seems to be a business like any other, except for being illegal.

More recently we have seen a disturbing trend of home invaders who seemed to care little about alarms and security cameras. Some of that must have been associated with, then L.A. D.A., George Gascon’s lack of interest in prosecuting crime. No one seemed to care about being identified as nothing was going to be done.

This year we are encountering the terrifying phenomena of home invasion robberies that intentionally target properties when the residents are home. The thieves bring materials to tie up the victims and lock them in closets. The only rationale I can think of is knowing the home has specific assets and the need for the homeowner to locate them and/or give the combination to a safe.

A week ago my community experienced something very much out of scope and character. The news told us of a home invasion that resulted in the death of the homeowner. It has happened in rare instances. But this case had some truly unusual elements. The identities were the first red flags. All of us who read the story noted that the names of the victim and his three killers were unique and similar. A quick Google search indicated they were names associated with being ethnically Georgian, from the former Soviet Republic. Think Tablisi, not Atlanta.

Another flag was the mention of the FBI. The FBI deals with federal crimes. Breaking and entering, robbery, and murder are terrible crimes, but they are generally not federal crimes. Federal authorities oversee organized crime, racketeering, extortion, cartels etc.

Lastly it seems that the identities and location of the three killers were known to the FBI, as all three were picked up within hours, arrested, and jailed on $2 million bail. This is pretty unheard of in the realm of the standard home invasion. It was reported that the killers removed all security cameras, so we can assume they didn’t leave business cards. One is left to surmise that the FBI were already aware of, and keeping tabs on, the trio and had some notion as to their illegal activities.

Nothing makes you feel cozier than considering that the Russian-adjacent mob are operating  in your neighborhood.

A recent, March 2025, press release from the DOJ US Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of NY [1] details a frighteningly similar case which seems to involve extortion for money. To get a sense of the nature of these criminals here are some quotes from the complaint

they

“threatened to kill and maim the Victim and his family if he did not pay.”

“Those threats were particularly violent and included, among others, that one or more of the defendants would “break [the Victim’s] spine over his knee,” “peel out [the Victim’s] eyes,” that the Victim would be beaten beyond recognition to his family, and that the Victim’s dead body would be found “when the snow melts.“ [1]

Lovely?

I had assumed that, like the Italian mafia, they had come here legally and could not be denied access. But it seems not. The latest news here out west is that the trio of suspected murderers in our local homicide did indeed enter the country illegally. They were caught but then released at the border.  All three had ICE detainers on them [2]. One had been arrested for burglary and drug crimes after arriving. Lucky for them, not so much for the their victim, their target was in a state that doesn’t cooperate with immigration enforcement.

Yes, yes you will want to argue the relative likelihood of crimes being committed by natives and immigrants. For legal immigrants I believe that to be true. For illegals of the the last few years I do not, particularly when most are single young men of unknown identity.

But perhaps we could at least all agree that the mafia is NOT the “diversity that makes us better”

This concept is so plain that it played out in the mass illegal migration itself. One day while watching the only reporter covering the border I saw an interesting exchange. The reporter, Bill Melugin, was asking people from where they came and where they were headed. He encountered two English speaking men from Turkey. While Turkey is now in NATO it is not so much a free country. So perhaps they had an argument for asylum. Either way they were presently entering illegally. Yet the first concern they expressed to the interviewer was that no one was being vetted. “You don’t know who these guys are!” The irony and the clarity were striking. Educated men who were knowingly crossing the border without papers had, as their greatest fear, their fellow travelers. Turkey is in a bad neighborhood. It borders Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Armenia, and, yes, Georgia. They had the sense to know that not everyone was looking to go to school or work in the trades.

“Give me your tired, your poor”, …Your Russian Mob?

Lord, let us hope not.

REFERENCES

[1] “Georgian Organized Crime Boss And Associates Convicted And Sentenced For Extortion Offenses”, United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, March 13, 2025, https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/georgian-organized-crime-boss-and-associates-convicted-and-sentenced-extortion

[2] “Illegal immigrants charged in brutal murder during California home invasion, robbery”, Koch, Alexandra, Melugin, Bill, May 3, 2025, https://www.foxnews.com/us/illegal-immigrants-charged-brutal-murder-california-home-invasion-robbery