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The home of Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals was burglarized in December. The authorities said a man detained in Manhattan was part of a related fencing operation.
Feb. 4, 2025Updated 7:21 p.m. ET
A Georgian man charged with buying and reselling stolen watches, handbags and other luxury items in Manhattan’s Diamond District is linked to a group believed to have burglarized the home of Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, according to a person with knowledge of the case.
The man, Dimitriy Nezhinskiy, and another suspect, Juan Villar, were accused of running a fencing operation for South American gangs that have burglarized more than a dozen homes across the United States, according to an indictment unsealed in the Eastern District of New York on Tuesday.
It was unclear whether either man had legal representation.
The burglary at Mr. Burrow’s Cincinnati-area house was one in a string of break-ins at multimillion-dollar homes in Ohio in which four Chilean men were charged last month.
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Investigators on Tuesday seized dozens of luxury items from a pawnshop in the Diamond District that prosecutors said was the two men’s illegal business. At the same time, the authorities recovered sports memorabilia, wine and other merchandise from New Jersey storage units belonging to Mr. Nezhinskiy, along with tools they said matched those often used in burglaries.
On Tuesday evening, a small crowd of reporters and onlookers gathered on the sidewalk at 47th Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. Yellow police tape blocked off a section of sidewalk and scaffolding. Men in blue F.B.I. jackets stood, coffees in hand, outside a large black van.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Maia Coleman contributed reporting.
