WASHINGTON DC — Mario Bustamante Leiva was sentenced to three years in prison for stealing a handbag from then–Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at a Washington DC restaurant in April 2025. He faces deportation after his sentence, the justice department said.

Bustamante Leiva, a 50-year-old native of Chile, pleaded guilty in November to three counts of wire fraud and one count of first-degree theft. Prosecutors said he did not realize he was targeting a cabinet secretary when he took the bag.

Noem was eating at the Capital Burger restaurant with her family, her handbag underneath her seat, when Bustamante Leiva took it. The Gucci bag contained about $3,000 in cash, along with Noem's driver's license, passport, and DHS access badge. Because she was a cabinet official, Noem had Secret Service protection, and officers were with her at the restaurant when her bag went missing.

The Secret Service investigated the incident alongside the police. Investigators identified Bustamante Leiva as a suspect through a gift card he purchased with a stolen credit card, and police later recovered the stolen handbag from his motel room.

Bustamante Leiva often hid his pickpocketing by draping a coat over his arm, the justice department said, and made purchases with his victims' credit cards within minutes of taking them. The justice department said he targeted multiple victims before his arrest.

"Bustamante Leiva came to Washington illegally to prey on citizens of the district," Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said in a statement. "His pattern of theft ends here," she said.

Noem, a former governor of South Dakota, was serving as Homeland Security Secretary at the time of the theft. The case was prosecuted in the District of Columbia following Bustamante Leiva's guilty plea in November.