Federal prosecutors say seven males from Southern California stole roughly $100 million price of gold, diamonds, rubies, emeralds and watches in 2022, a few of which can be pictured on this picture shared by way of the FBI Los Angeles Box Place of business.
U.S. Division of Justice
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U.S. Division of Justice
Seven Southern California males had been charged in what federal prosecutors are calling “the biggest jewellery heist in U.S. historical past.”
A federal indictment returned final week accuses them of stealing roughly $100 million price of gold, diamonds, rubies, emeralds and comfort watches from an armored semitruck because it was once leaving a world jewellery display in July 2022, the U.S. Lawyer’s Place of business within the Central District of California mentioned in a Tuesday information unlock.
The suspects allegedly adopted the car some 300 miles from the San Francisco house to relaxation stops north of Los Angeles, the place they stole 24 luggage — or about one-third of the truck’s load — and took them house to resell.
In what is regarded as to be the biggest jewellery heist in U.S. historical past, 7 males had been charged for breaking right into a Brinks semitruck and stealing roughly $100 million price of gold, diamonds, rubies, emeralds & watches being transported in 2022. Main points: https://t.co/DJuKeUihIx %.twitter.com/byFEBEUjTK
— FBI Los Angeles (@FBILosAngeles) June 18, 2025
All seven males — ranging in age from 31 to 60 and from towns in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties — are going through federal fees of conspiracy to dedicate robbery from interstate and international cargo and robbery from interstate and international cargo.
A number of of the boys are going through further fees in reference to separate truck robberies in 2022. 4 of them allegedly stole $240,573 price of Samsung electronics in March, whilst a 5th allegedly joined them to thieve $57,377 price of Apple AirTags in Might.
The U.S. Lawyer’s Place of business showed to NPR that two of the boys, Jeson Nelon Presilla Flores and Pablo Raul Lugo Larroig, had been arrested and gave the impression in federal court docket on Tuesday. They each pleaded now not accountable and had been remanded to custody pending a jury trial, which is about to start on Aug. 1. NPR has reached out to their attorneys.
Any other, Jazael Padilla Resto, is these days in an Arizona state jail serving a sentence for third-degree housebreaking sentence. He’s anticipated to look in court docket “within the coming weeks,” whilst the opposite 4 males are nonetheless at massive, in line with the Related Press.
Akil Davis, assistant director accountable for the FBI’s Los Angeles box place of job, mentioned in a remark that the investigation took “years of seamless collaboration” between the bureau and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division. It additionally concerned the police departments of 2 California towns, Fontana and Ontario, in line with prosecutors.
The U.S. Lawyer’s Place of business says government had been in a position to get better one of the vital stolen jewellery whilst sporting out seek warrants in mid-June, however declined to elaborate on specifics.
“I am gratified that we will after all start to give solutions to the sufferers of this huge robbery and ship them a measure of justice by way of protecting those defendants responsible,” Davis added.
Main points of the alleged heistÂ
The federal indictment accuses the seven males of sporting out an elaborate plot to scout, thieve and resell valuables between March and July 2022. And it suggests they did not act on my own, pronouncing they conspired with each and every different in addition to “others recognized and unknown to the Grand Jury.”
Consistent with the 14-page file, the crowd allegedly used more than one cars to observe truck drivers they’d prior to now known as sporting jewellery, electronics and different products.
When the drivers stepped out to grasp meals or take a wreck, one of the vital suspects would act as lookouts whilst others would wreck into their reputedly unattended vans to rob them, “together with by way of power and danger of power within the sufferers’ presence.”
The indictment says the suspects would then go back to Los Angeles County with their loot to “divide up and fence for benefit.”
It outlines the alleged main points of more than one incidents all through that time frame, the most expensive of which is the estimated $100 million jewellery heist.
Prosecutors allege that probably the most defendants and different co-conspirators spent 3 days on-site scouting a world jewellery display in San Mateo, Calif., together with making more than one calls to one another, to plot the theft.
At the 0.33 day, they allegedly scouted a Brinks semitruck — a bullet-resistant armored truck used to move precious shipment — sporting “73 luggage containing hundreds of thousands of greenbacks in jewellery that had traveled in interstate trade.”
That evening, they are saying, six of the boys adopted the truck for a number of hours and several other hundred miles to relaxation stops in Buttonwillow and Lebec, Calif. They allegedly stole 24 of the baggage out of the truck and took the jewellery again to East Hollywood, the place they deactivated their telephones inside a number of days.
Jerry Kroll is an legal professional representing one of the vital jewelers whose products was once stolen — maximum of whom are senior voters, he informed the BBC.
He known as the heist “a tragedy on more than one ranges” in a Might Los Angeles Instances interview.
“A few of my shoppers left the jewellery business. Others are searhing for a technique to hold in,” he mentioned. “None of them are doing neatly. … For my shoppers, ready is difficult.”
NPR has reached out to Kroll.
There was once a string of different incidentsÂ
The indictment additionally recounts a number of robberies — each tried and achieved — that did not pass as easily.
In March 2022, for instance, some participants of the similar team adopted a field truck sporting Apple AirTags from China, to be brought to a warehouse in Fontana, Calif. The suspects allegedly stole the products as the driving force stepped away for meals — just for him to bust them upon his go back.
When the truck driving force stuck the conspirators stealing the Apple AirTags, probably the most males yelled on the driving force to not transfer, whilst threatening him with a small knife, in line with the indictment. The boys controlled to break out with the AirTags.
In every other example, in Might 2022, prosecutors allege that the suspects attempted however did not thieve from a special car at a truck forestall in Fontana. They are saying probably the most males used a crowbar to damage into the car, however — for causes which might be unclear within the indictment — they fled the scene empty-handed.
Ancient U.S. heists
Los Angeles was once the sufferer of every other high-profile jewellery heist previous this yr: On a Sunday evening in April, burglars tunneled thru a concrete wall to go into a downtown jewellery retailer, making off with what government say was once no less than $10 million price of watches, pendants, gold chains and different products.
If the 2022 jewellery heist is certainly the biggest in U.S. historical past, it had some festival. One of the vital notable, often referred to as the “Jewel Heist of the Century,” took place in October 1964.
As historian David Sears wrote in Smithsonian Mag, two “self-styled Miami seashore boys” scaled a fence, scrambled up a fireplace get away and climbed up a rope to sneak into the Corridor of Gemstones and Minerals at the fourth flooring of New York Town’s American Museum of Herbal Historical past.
As their lookout drove across the block in a Cadillac, Allan Dale Kuhn and Jack Roland Murphy used a glasscutter, duct tape and a squeegee to take 24 valuable gem stones — together with the Big name of India, probably the most international’s greatest sapphires — from their show instances. They escaped in separate getaway cabs however had been arrested two days later. Many of the gem stones had been in the end recovered, with some mysterious exceptions.
Any other primary heist passed off in Big apple on Jan. 2, 1972, when 8 armed males walked into the outstanding, celebrity-favorite Pierre Lodge simply sooner than 3 a.m. and stole $27 million in jewels and money from its protection deposit bins. The crime has now not been solved.
