REGION – Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and State Police Colonel John Mawn Jr. announced that four people have been arrested in a burglary ring, including incidents in Hudson and Southborough.
According to Ryan and Mawn, Jovan, 29, of Providence, R.I.; Paul Lemon, 30, of Warwick, R.I.; Steven Berdugo, 28, of Providence, R.I.; and Paul Miller, 46, of Woonsocket, R.I. have been charged in connection to 43 burglaries in 25 Massachusetts towns between 2018 to 2024.
“The defendants are part of an organized burglary ring with ties to a violent Providence-based gang known to law enforcement agencies in Rhode Island,” a press release from Ryan’s office read.
The arrests were the result of an investigation spanning nine months by the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, the State Police detective unit assigned to the DA’s office and State Police Division of Homeland Security, including the MACrimeNet program that is operated by the MSP Fusion Center.
A Middlesex Grand Jury indicted them on April 18 with 95 counts of unarmed burglary and breaking and entering a dwelling house in the daytime with intent to commit a felony. Ryan and Mawn said a majority of the households were home to people of Indian or South Asian heritage, and the investigators believe the victims were targeted based on their ethnicity, “relying on a belief that their households were more likely to contain precious metals, jewelry and other valuable heirlooms,” the release said.
The aggregate reported value of the stolen property is over $4 million.
Ryan said the defendants were “very sophisticated.” After targeting the victims based on their ethnicity, she said they gathered information on them to strike while the victims weren’t home. The defendants concealed their identities and avoided alarms and minimized their cell phone usage and using Wi-Fi jammers.
“Despite these challenges and the complicated nature and breadth of this investigation, law enforcement collaboratively and persistently worked to today begin the process of holding these four defendants accountable,” Ryan said.
