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Jara-Arias, in the country illegally, is currently serving time for gang-related Long Island burglary
DELMAR – An alleged member of the “South American Theft Group’’ of “crime tourists,’’ was in Bethlehem Town Court on Tuesday, Oct. 21 to face four charges related to a wallet theft in Glenmont in 2018.
Leonardo Jara-Arias, 53, of Newark, NJ, began serving a 18-month-to-three-year sentence for attempted burglary in state prison on September 26 at the Riverview correctional facility in Ogdensburg. He was convicted on that charge in connection with a November 2024 incident involving six South American gang members cutting through a roof of a business to gain entry to a jewelry store in Woodbury.
The South American Theft Group gang is accused of many high-profile thefts across the county in recent months, including from professional athletes…