Julio Rosas, a Townhall alumnus, tapped his D.C. sources to confirm that the purse thief who on Easter Sunday snatched DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s Gucci bag, which contained her DHS badge, passport, driver’s license, mobile phone, and $3,000 in cash, has been identified. Turns out the perp is a Chilean illegal immigrant who served three years in a London prison for his crimes.
Color us shocked.
BREAKING: A law enforcement source in D.C. has confirmed to me the man accused of stealing DHS Sec. Noem’s purse is Mario Bustamante Leiva. U.S. Attorney for D.C. Ed Martin has said the man is in the U.S. illegally.
A Daily Mail article from 2015 says Bustamante Leiva is Chilean… pic.twitter.com/6c1h6nPTsL
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) April 27, 2025
BREAKING: A law enforcement source in D.C. has confirmed to me the man accused of stealing DHS Sec. Noem’s purse is Mario Bustamante Leiva. U.S. Attorney for D.C. Ed Martin has said the man is in the U.S. illegally.
A Daily Mail article from 2015 says Bustamante Leiva is Chilean who stole wallets, computers, and phones in London.
Bustamante Leiva’s MO has not changed over the years, as that 2015 Daily Mail article Rosas referenced described.
‘He would enter the premises wearing a flat cap, large coat and backpack or large bag over his shoulder, even in the height of summer.
‘He would then stand or sit close to a person who had their bag on the floor or the back of a chair.
‘He would observe them and at an opportune moment remove the bag with his foot or the back of his hand.
‘After he obtained the bag he would hide it under his coat and leave the premises with the bag and its contents.’
Days after the theft, on Wednesday, April 23, Noem documented her experience to podcaster Vince Coglianese:
“It was kind of shocking, actually, because it was sitting right by my feet. I actually felt my purse — he hooked with his foot and drug it a few steps away and dropped a coat over it and took it,” the 53-year-old recounted to podcaster Vince Coglianese Wednesday.
“I thought it was my grandkids kicking me in the legs, but it was very professionally done,” she added[.]
Noem wasn’t wrong. Bustamante Leiva is a professional thief who, in 2014, bopped around London and stole from the well-heeled and toney. The magistrate who handled his trial said he was dishonest to his “fingertips,” and decided he needed to be locked up. So, how did Bustamante Leiva get into our country? If you haven’t heard, the United States suffered under a four-year Biden border crisis where the “best and brightest” aliens from all countries illegally overran our borders, sucked up government resources and services, and either disappeared without a trace, or set up their criminal networks. Tren de Aragua are the big fishes, Bustamante Leiva an example of a small one. As our sister site Twitchy notes, you really cannot make this stuff up.
Bustamante Leiva may be the best at what he does, but he certainly is not the brightest. Why would anyone knowingly steal the bag of the government official who can throw you into Gitmo or deport you on a dime? However Bustamante Leiva entered the country, the point is he is one of those criminal illegal aliens that Democrats have been claiming nine ways to Sunday really don’t exist.
Democrat @ElectAdamSmith says many Democrats “believe that there are a lot of people in this country, undocumented, who should be allowed to stay. They have been a vital part of our economy”
“We have depended upon their labor for decades”
They opened the border on purpose! pic.twitter.com/D6JzZ1vMZu
— NRCC (@NRCC) April 26, 2025
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump, illegal immigration into our great country has virtually stopped. Despite the radical left’s lies, new legislation wasn’t needed to secure our border, just a new president.
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