Crime

4 men charged in dozens of break-ins across 25 Mass. towns

The men allegedly targeted homes owned by residents of Indian or South Asian heritage.

Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan at a 2021 press conference. Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff

April 26, 2024

Previously:

Four Rhode Island men were arrested Friday in connection with 43 burglaries and break-ins across 25 Massachusetts towns dating back to 2018.

The men — Jovan Lemon, 29, of Providence; Paul Lemon, 30, of Warwick; Steven Berdugo, 28, of Providence; and Paul Miller, 46, of Woonsocket — were indicted by a Middlesex Grand Jury last week on a total of 95 counts of unarmed burglary and breaking and entering a dwelling house in the daytime with the intent to commit a felony, the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office said in a release.

“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,” authorities said.

The charges stem from incidents in the following towns between July 21, 2018, and March 30, 2024:

Andover
Bellingham
Billerica
Boxborough
Boxford
Carlisle
Easton
Franklin
Hopkinton
Hudson
Lincoln
Littleton
Medway
Middleton
Millis
North Attleborough
Norwell
Pembroke
Seekonk
Sharon
Southborough
Sudbury
Wenham
Weston
Westwood

The men allegedly targeted homes owned by residents of Indian or South Asian heritage.

“Investigators believe that they were targeted based on of their ethnicity relying on a belief that their households were more likely to contain precious metals, jewelry, and other valuable heirlooms,” the DA’s office said.

In executing search warrants Friday morning, authorities found temple membership lists and GPS trackers, as well as guns, District Attorney Marian Ryan said at a press conference. She said hate crime charges are possible.

Jewelry, including items worth up to $75,000, was taken in the break-ins. Sometimes the thieves took entire safes weighing up to 400 pounds, and altogether, the stolen property exceeds $4 million, authorities said. In the searches, a “very large quantity of jewelry” was recovered as well, Ryan said, adding authorities were attempting to return the items to their owners.

“The defendants in this case were very sophisticated,” she said in a statement. “They targeted victims based on their ethnicity and then gathered information about their targets in order to strike when families were not at home. They were disciplined in concealing their identity, avoiding alarms, and minimizing cell phone use before, during, and after the breaks, and using Wi-Fi jammers.”

A nine-month investigation by the DA’s office and State Police, working with Rhode Island State Police and numerous local departments, led to the arrests.

Watch authorities’ Friday press conference: