A jewel heist said to be the biggest in U.S. history began with the scouting of the loot at a San Mateo gem show, says a new document filed against the seven suspects.
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More than $100 million in gold, diamonds, rubies, emeralds and luxury watches were in 22 bags nabbed from a Brink’s truck on July 11, 2022, said a sealed indictment filed in federal court on June 11. The charges against the seven Southern California men were announced Tuesday, June 17, by the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.
The indictment’s timeline says one member of the robbery crew attended the International Gem & Jewelry Show at the San Mateo County fairgrounds on all three days of its run — July 8-10, 2022 — and that he and co-defendants identified a Brink’s semitruck that was to carry 73 bags of jewelry to the show’s next stop, in Pasadena.
A Los Angeles Times report in 2023 said the event’s manager noticed a man observing the exhibitors packing up after the show and ordered a security guard to oust him. She then notified the Brink’s workers and the jewelers about “suspicious” people on site.
One of the Brink’s drivers told the Times he saw someone sitting in an SUV watching the loading of the truck — “It just felt weird,” he said.
When the truck left the fairgrounds on the night of July 10, six of the robbers reportedly tailed it down Interstate 5.
An earlier lawsuit involving Brink’s and the jewels’ owners said the robbery took place around 2:15 a.m. at the Flying J Truck Stop in Lebec, on the Grapevine section of I-5.
One driver went into the truck stop to get food, leaving his co-worker sleeping in the truck’s berth. When the driver returned about 27 minutes later, he saw that the red plastic seal on the truck’s trailer had been cut and that the lock had been broken, the account said. Twenty-two bags were missing.
The truck had been out of the range of any surveillance cameras.
The lawsuit filed by Brink’s against the jewelers accused them of undervaluing the merchandise to be transported. It said the clients were attempting to recover far more than the declared value, which was $8.7 million for the entire shipment. Jewelry industry insiders told the Times that it’s standard practice to declare a low value to reduce shipping fees.
A countersuit by the jewelers accused Brink’s of “lax security.”
The seven men named in the new indictment are:
Carlos Victor Mestanza Cercado, 31, of Pasadena
Jazael Padilla Resto, 36, of Boyle Heights
Pablo Raul Lugo Larroig, 41, of Rialto
Victor Hugo Valencia Solorzano, 60, of Rampart Village in Los Angeles
Jorge Enrique Alban, 33, of South Los Angeles
Jeson Nelon Presilla Flores, 42, of Upland
Eduardo Macias Ibarra, 36, of the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles
Padilla Resto is serving an Arizona prison sentence for burglary. Two men were arrested before this week’s announcement, and the status of the four others wasn’t specified.