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Seven people were charged with carrying out a 2022 jewelry heist that officials say was the “largest” in American history.
The theft took place in California in July 2022 when a Brinks truck moving a large amount of jewelry from a trade show stopped at a rest stop, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said.
Gold, diamonds, rubies, emeralds and luxury watches valued at roughly $100 million were taken, according to the attorney’s office.
Roughly three years later, seven suspects have been indicted.
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The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said those involved in the caper have been hit with two counts of conspiracy to commit theft from interstate and foreign shipments and theft from interstate and foreign shipments.
Carlos Victor Mestanza Cercado, Jazael Padilla Resto, Pablo Raul Lugo Larroig, Victor Hugo Valencia Solorzano, Jorge Enrique Alban, Jeson Nelon Presilla Flores and Eduardo Macias Ibarra are the named defendants. Their ages range from 31 to 60.
Mestanza, Padilla, Lugo, Valencia and Alban are “charged with two counts of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery and interference with commerce by robbery (Hobbs Act), as well as additional counts of theft from interstate and foreign shipment,” the attorney’s office said.
The heist on the Brinks truck took place in July 2022.
The defendants shadowed the truck for roughly 300 miles as it traveled from an “international jewelry show” in San Mateo, the indictment claimed.
The indictment accused Mestanza, Lugo and Alban of scouting out the truck departing the show the evening of June 11, 2022.
A person holds a gold ring from a jewelry box. (iStock / iStock)
The attorney’s office claimed some of the defendants also committed other thefts in the months leading up to the jewelry theft.
In March of that year, Mestanza, Padilla, Lugo and Valencia “are also alleged to have stole $240,573 worth of Samsung electronics” from a cargo shipment in Ontario, California, and they and Alban also took Apple AirTags valued at $57,377 from another truck, according to the attorney’s office.
They took $14,081 in Samsung electronics from a shipment in Fontana, California, in late May of that year, the attorney’s office also alleges.
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“An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime,” the attorney’s office’s press release noted. “Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.”
Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said in a statement posted on X that the investigation “took years of seamless collaboration by the Bureau and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.”
FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., July 3, 2023. (Getty Images / Getty Images)
“I’m gratified that we can finally begin to give answers to the victims of this massive theft and deliver them a measure of justice by holding these defendants accountable,” Davis added.
The Fontana Police Department and Ontario Police Department were also involved in the investigation, according to the press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
Authorities carrying out search warrants earlier in the week seized some of the jewelry, the attorney’s office said.
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Jewelry firms in the U.S. had losses totaling $142.5 million due to crimes last year, according to the Jewelers Security Alliance, a 7% jump from 2023, when it was $133.2 million.