Seven men from Southern California were accused Tuesday in connection with what federal prosecutors described as the greatest jewelry heist in US history.
The defendants, all of whom are from the Los Angeles region, are suspected of stealing around $100 million in gold, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and luxury watches from an armored car in July 2022, according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
They were indicted last Wednesday on two counts of conspiracy to conduct theft from interstate and foreign shipment and theft from interstate and foreign shipment, according to a news release from the prosecutor’s office.
The defendants are identified as:
- Carlos Victor Mestanza Cercado is 31.
- Jazael Padilla Resto, 36.
- Pablo Raul Lugo Larroig is 41.
- Victor Hugo Valencia Solorzano is 60.
- Jorge Enrique Alban, age 33,
- Jeson Nelon Presilla Flores is 42.
- Eduardo Macias Ibarra is 36.
According to the prosecutor’s office, five of the individuals have been charged with two counts of conspiracy to interfere with trade by robbery and interference with commerce by robbery.
Two of the guys were scheduled to appear in federal court Tuesday. Padilla is currently detained in Arizona, where he faces a burglary allegation, according to the prosecutor’s office.
It is unclear whether they have lawyers who can speak on their behalf.
According to the accusation, Padilla scouted an international jewelry expo in San Mateo, just south of San Francisco, on July 8, 2022. Two days later, he and several others trailed a Brinks semitruck carrying 73 bags containing millions of dollars in jewelry from San Mateo to rest sites in Buttonwillow, in the state’s Central Valley, and Lebec, north of Los Angeles, according to the indictment.
The indictment alleges that on July 11, the seven men took two dozen bags from the vehicle.
The indictment does not specify how they were thought to have acquired access to the truck. Brinks and a prosecutor’s office representative did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Authorities added that following the alleged robbery, the group traveled to East Hollywood with the stolen goods. According to the indictment, the majority of the defendants disabled the phones they had used to communicate about the crime in the days that followed.
According to the indictment, the victims determined that the stolen products were worth $100 million. According to the news release, investigators executed search warrants on Monday and recovered some of the jewelry. The worth of those things is unclear. It’s unclear what happened to the rest of the jewels.
Several defendants were also accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of Samsung devices from interstate cargo shipments, as well as roughly $60,000 in Apple AirTags. According to the prosecutor’s office, the thefts took place in 2022, before to the jewelry crime.
