LOS ANGELES — Officials announced Wednesday that seven defendants face federal criminal charges in an indictment alleging a major crime tourism operation spanning the country. 

U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California E. Martin Estrada said the criminals were arrested in a series of raids across Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties as part of a major crime tourism operation where foreign nationals from South America would come to the United States to commit crimes.

“Our message to crime tourist is this: your days are numbered,” Estrada said. 

Official said in this six-year investigation with over 120 burglaries and thefts across the country, the so-called “quarterbacks” of this team of thieves were a Santa Clarita Valley man named Juan Carlos Thola Duran and his live-in girlfriend Ana Maria Arriagada.

They ran a car rental business in Los Angeles that catered only to crooks, according to Estrada. He said the crime tourists would go to the business, then be dispatched to the neighborhoods and businesses they were directed to steal from. 

“They rented cars to the criminal tourists,” Estrada explained. “They had different types of cars to allow the crime tourists to blend into the neighborhoods they would go to. They would give them cars, give them the equipment, tell them where to go, and once they had stolen merchandise, they would help them fence or sell that merchandise to take a percentage.”

It’s part of a growing issue of burglaries and robberies in certain neighborhoods across the city and County of Los Angeles that Mayor Karen Bass says she’s addressing by sending additional officers to patrol current hot spots, including the San Fernando Valley.

“People are feeling frightened,” she said. “They’re feeling terrified. And I’m just hoping that the takedown of this criminal enterprise will give people just a little breathing room.”

For Josh Sautter, president of the Encino Neighborhood Council, it brings a sense of resolve. 

“I hope that it’s a deterrent for other criminals now that this is on the radar of police officers and investigators,” he said. 

Officials estimate the losses to be well north of $35 million.