Law enforcement has arrested two men accused of involvement in a July 2022 heist that saw around $100 million in jewelry stolen from a Brinks truck parked at a Lebec, California, rest stop.
The U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said the incident is “considered to be the largest jewelry heist in U.S. history” in a press release this week.
Federal prosecutors listed seven suspects, all from California: Carlos Victor Mestanza Cercado, 31, of Pasadena; Pablo Raul Lugo Larroig, 41, of Rialto; Jeson Nelon Presilla Flores, 42, of Upland; plus four men from Los Angeles.
The four Angelenos are Victor Hugo Valencia Solorzano, 60; Jorge Enrique Alban, 33; Eduardo Macias Ibarra, 36; and Jazael Padilla Resto, 36.
Mr. Lugo and Mr. Presilla were arrested on Monday, according to The Associated Press. Padilla, meanwhile, is in the Arizona state prison serving time on an unrelated conviction for third-degree burglary with unlawful entry.
The four other suspects in the gang, which is suspected in other cargo-truck heists, were still at large Wednesday.
Some of the missing jewelry was recovered Monday when search warrants were carried out, the Central California attorney’s office said.
The attorney’s office said that Mr. Mestanza, Mr. Lugo and Mr. Alban scouted out the Brinks truck from a jewelry show in San Mateo, California. The wider group of accused conspirators then followed the truck to rest stops in Buttonwillow, California, and Lebec, prosecutors said.
The defendants are accused of taking 24 bags of jewelry out of 73 total contained on the truck; the missing bags contained gold, precious stones and luxury watches worth around $100 million.
“The sheer quantity of gems and jewelry wouldn’t fit in one car. It’s a staggering amount of jewelry and for it to be left alone is unconscionable,” Arnold Duke, head of the hosting International Gem and Jewelry Show, told CNN shortly after the heist.
Mr. Mestanza, Mr. Presilla, Mr. Lugo, Mr. Valencia and Mr. Alban all deactivated their phones following their participation in the heist, prosecutors said.
In addition to the jewelry heist, the attorney’s office accused Mr. Mestanza, Mr. Lugo, Mr. Valencia and Padilla of stealing $240,573 worth of Samsung electronics from a cargo shipment in Ontario, California, on March 2, 2022.
Those four plus Mr. Alban are also accused of robbing a box truck of $57,377 worth of Apple AirTags in Fontana, California, on March 11, 2022, according to court documents.
They then tried and failed to rob another truck in Fontana on May 25, 2022, before successfully stealing $14,081 worth of Samsung electronics from another shipment in Fontana, prosecutors said.
All seven defendants are charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit theft from interstate and foreign shipment and theft from interstate and foreign shipment.
Mr. Mestanza, Mr. Alban, Mr. Lugo, Mr. Valencia and Padilla are charged with an additional two counts of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery and interference with commerce by robbery and additional counts of theft from interstate and foreign shipment.
If convicted, Mr. Mestanza, Mr. Alban, Mr. Lugo, Mr. Valencia and Padilla would face up to 20 years in prison for each robbery charge. All seven defendants would face up to five years in prison on the charge of theft conspiracy and 10 years for each theft charge, the Attorney’s Office said.
