Three men from Florida have entered guilty pleas to charges related to a series of high-end home burglaries in St. Louis County, including affluent areas like Ladue and Chesterfield. The culprits – Benjamin Andres Ovalle-Taibo, Jonathan Vejar-Caro, both aged 33, and 21-year-old Henry Jose Ferreira-Perez – have admitted to their roles in the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of jewelry and other valuables.
According to a U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Missouri, Ovalle-Taibo pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit the transportation of stolen goods and Vejar-Caro to one count of transportation of stolen goods. Ferreira-Perez, who pleaded guilty in December to the same charge as Vejar-Caro, has been sentenced to 14 months in prison.
The trio acknowledged that on June 9, 2023, they targeted St. Louis County homes after conducting prior surveillance and acquiring burglary tools. That night, Ovalle-Taibo and Vejar-Caro stole more than $330,000 worth of luxury goods from a Ladue residence and subsequently fled to Illinois before heading back to Florida to sell their plunder.
The arrest followed other burglaries on June 16, 2023, which includes a heist in an unincorporated area of St. Louis County where about $128,000 in valuables was taken, as per the investigation led by the Frontenac Police Department. The following day involved in two Chesterfield home invasions, the thieves amassed loot worth approximately $232,500 combined from both houses.
Further proceedings for Ovalle-Taibo and Vejar-Caro are expected in October when they are scheduled for sentencing. The three men who are currently in the U.S. illegally are likely to face deportation proceedings after serving their sentence. The operation to bring these individuals to justice was a combined effort by the FBI, Ladue Police Department, Frontenac Police Department, and Chesterfield Police Department, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Gwendolyn Carroll spearheading the prosecution.
