Seven Southern California men were charged in connection with what federal prosecutors described Tuesday as the largest jewelry heist in U.S. history.
The defendants, all of whom are from the Los Angeles area, are accused of stealing roughly $100 million in gold, diamonds, rubies, emeralds and luxury watches from an armored car in July 2022, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for California’s Central District.
They were indicted last Wednesday on two counts of conspiracy to commit theft from interstate and foreign shipment and theft from interstate and foreign shipment, the prosecutor’s office said in a news release.
The defendants were identified as:
Carlos Victor Mestanza Cercado, 31Jazael Padilla Resto, 36Pablo Raul Lugo Larroig, 41Victor Hugo Valencia Solorzano, 60Jorge Enrique Alban, 33,Jeson Nelon Presilla Flores, 42Eduardo Macias Ibarra, 36
Five of the men were also charged with two counts of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery and interference with commerce by robbery, the prosecutor’s office said.
Two of the men were expected to appear in federal court Tuesday. Padilla is incarcerated in Arizona, where, the prosecutor’s office said, he is in prison on a burglary charge.
It isn’t clear whether they have lawyers to speak on their behalf.
A copy of the indictment alleges that Padilla scouted an international jewelry show in San Mateo, just south of San Francisco, on July 8, 2022. Two days later, he and several others followed a Brinks semitruck with 73 bags containing millions of dollars in jewelry from San Mateo to rest stops in Buttonwillow, in the state’s Central Valley, and Lebec, north of Los Angeles, the indictment alleges.
On July 11, the seven men stole two-dozen bags from the truck, the indictment claims.
The indictment doesn’t say how they are believed to have gained access to the truck. Brinks didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment; neither did a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office.
After the alleged theft, the group traveled to East Hollywood with the stolen goods, authorities said. Most of the defendants deactivated the phones they’d been using to communicate about the heist in the days that followed, according to the indictment.
The indictment says the victims tallied the value of the stolen goods at $100 million. The news release says some of that jewelry was recovered when authorities executed search warrants Monday. The value of those items isn’t clear. Nor is it clear what happened to the rest of the jewelry.
Several of the defendants were also accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars of Samsung electronics from interstate cargo shipments and nearly $60,000 in Apple AirTags. Those thefts are alleged to have occurred in 2022, before the jewelry heist, according to the prosecutor’s office.
