Photo courtesy of Kirkland Police Department
KIRKLAND — Law enforcement agencies in Kirkland and neighboring areas collaborated to arrest five people suspected of orchestrating a series of burglaries targeting members of the Indian American and other South Asian communities.
The probe, initiated in February, gained traction when residents reported a surge in residential burglaries affecting individuals of Indian and South Asian descent.
In late February, surveillance footage and eyewitness accounts captured images of three suspects and a license plate linked to a residential burglary in the North Rose Hill neighborhood. One suspect, from Palmdale, California, had an extensive criminal record as a convicted felon.
Investigators uncovered that the men frequently traveled between California and Washington, utilizing short-term rental properties to evade detection. Additionally, they rented cars and replaced license plates with stolen ones.
On March 24, a joint law enforcement team executed a search warrant in Redmond and arrested five men from Southern California—charging them with numerous burglaries committed in Kirkland, King, and Snohomish Counties.
Inside the house the men were renting, police found evidence of the burglaries including over $17,000 in cash and multiple high-end bags.