Chilean gang that robbed homes of elite US athletes, including Travis Kelce's, arrested after assaulting tennis player Juan Martin del Potro

A Chilean criminal gang dedicated to robbing homes of top athletes in the United States came down in Argentina after robbing the home of tennis player Juan Martin del Potro in the city of Tandil. Among those arrested are two Chileans with Interpol red alerts, wanted by the FBI for a series of high-value robberies against NFL and NBA figures, according to Argentine newspaper Clarín and also the New York Post.

The burglary of the 2009 U.S. Open champion's property occurred on May 15. According to Clarín, the ex-athlete's mother, Elisabet Lucas, arrived at the house in the Don Bosco neighborhood after being away for just two hours and found it disturbed. The house was missing dollars, jewelry, watches, trophies and even a gold-plated wedding ring with the inscription "Patri 23-12-1983."

The piece of information that broke the case was, curiously enough, a traffic infraction. The gang had used a burgundy Chevrolet Astra to reach Tandil and flee, and that vehicle had been issued a fine in Buenos Aires. According to Clarín, detectives were able to reconstruct the identities of the accused from that record. The driver was listed as Ignacio Zúñiga Cortes, and the official report noted that he had handed the wheel over to the Argentine Walter D'Amelio.

The investigation, led by prosecutor Marcos Eguzquiza and the Departmental Delegation of Investigations (DDI) of Azul (an agency of the Police of the Province of Buenos Aires responsible for investigating complex crimes), resulted in several operations. According to Clarín, two young Chileans, Zúñiga Cortes and Bastián Jiménez Freraut, both 23 years old, were arrested at the Retiro terminal when they were about to travel to Misiones. In another operation, on Route 7, D'Amelio, Rodolfo Cartes Escobar (35) and Alfredo Espinosa Gallardo (23) were arrested. The same media also reported a sixth person arrested in Chile, Pablo Zúñiga Cartes (24), also with an international arrest warrant.

A key piece of evidence, according to both newspapers, was DNA: Jimenez Freraut had a laceration when he was arrested, and his blood was compatible with samples found in the stolen houses in the United States.

It was the connection to the U.S. athletes that gave the case an international dimension. The New York Post, citing the Department of Justice, maintained that the network targeted the homes of NFL stars such as Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow, NBA player Bobby Portis and Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce and the fiancée of Taylor Swift between 2024 and 2025. The loot, according to Department of Justice figures reproduced by the New York newspaper, exceeded $3.5 million.

The method was systematic. The robbers rented cars in Florida, booked hotel rooms as a "center of operations," used false identities, and moved hundreds of miles, for example, to Kansas, to carry out the robberies when the athletes were playing away for their franchises or teams.

One of the victims, Milwaukee Bucks basketball player Bobby Portis, recounted the incident on social media in November 2025. The NBA player shared that while he was away at a game, someone broke into his home and stole some of his most prized possessions. It is believed that the heist yielded a haul worth nearly $1.4 million.

The four arrested in Argentina will be investigated for the crime of robbery, while Interpol Washington has already communicated its interest in extraditing the two Chileans wanted by the FBI to try them in the United States for conspiracy and interstate transportation of stolen goods.