Chilean authorities announced Tuesday that six valuable watches stolen from Canadian actor Keanu Reeves were handed over to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), months after recovering them in a police raid.
The FBI will arrange for the watches’ return to Reeves, including an engraved Rolex worth at least US$9,500. The 60-year-old actor’s six watches are valued at a total of US$125,000, according to Marcelo Varas, a police officer from Chile’s robbery investigation squad.
Chilean prosecutors told reporters that Reeves had identified the watches as those stolen from his Los Angeles home during a string of high-profile burglaries in December 2023.
The announcement was made as Trump’s secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, arrived in the South American country for meetings with Chilean officials about transnational crime, among other issues.
According to authorities, the watches stolen from the John Wick actor’s Hollywood Hills home nearly two years ago turned up in Santiago, Chile’s capital, when police raided homes and uncovered stolen cars, iPhones, luxury watches and designer purses.
That operation coincided with another Chilean investigation, coordinated with the FBI, into a spate of burglaries by South America-based crime groups targeting multi-million-dollar homes in the U.S., many belonging to celebrities and professional athletes, such as Kansas City Chiefs football player Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes.
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In February, seven Chilean nationals were charged with conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property over burglaries in which they stole valuables worth over US$2 million, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Middle District Florida.
According to the complaint, the individuals were members of a South American theft group that burglarized the homes of professional athletes around the United States.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the individuals targeted high-profile athletes in the National Football League (NFL) and National Basketball Association (NBA), when they were away or playing in professional games at the times of the burglaries.
Varas said authorities were still investigating any link between the theft of Reeves’ watches and the other high-profile burglaries.
In April, police in Chile announced the arrest of 23 citizens over the string of break-ins in the United States. The raid, codenamed “Operation Pennsylvania,” took place across dozens of homes in Santiago and led to the seizure of US$1.36 million worth of goods, according to police.
“This phenomenon of international thieves has regretfully existed in our country for many years, but it’s unfortunately been on the rise recently,” prosecutor Eduardo Baeza said during a press conference in April.
Johnny Fica, head of the Investigative Police of Chile’s (PDI) money and asset laundering division, said many of the detainees had no criminal records in Chile but were career criminals abroad that laundered assets in Chile.
Fica said the investigation began last year and was carried out with information from the FBI. They showed images from the raid which featured drawers filled with shoes, designer purses, luxury watches and more.
“What you see is part of a life of luxury they had here in Chile. A lot of them liked to show off,” Fica said, adding that many of the groups were family or close-knit units.
“Their goal was clear, they wanted to enjoy the profits of their crimes in this country and they didn’t skimp on spending because they felt like they had, until now, impunity,” Fica added.
— With files from The Associated Press and Reuters
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