A crew of seven men have been accused of committing the nation’s largest jewelry heist in Lebec nearly three years ago, Department of Justice officials said Tuesday in a news release.
Two of the men from the Southern California area were due in court Tuesday for their arraignment on two counts related to the theft valued at approximately $100 million.
The men are accused of breaking into a Brinks semitruck filled with gold, diamonds, rubies, emeralds and luxury watches being transported from a show in San Francisco to Los Angeles.
The indictment, which was unsealed June 11, charges the following defendants with two counts of conspiracy to commit theft from interstate and foreign shipment and theft from interstate and foreign shipment: Carlos Victor Mestanza Cercado, 31, of Pasadena; Jazael Padilla Resto, a.k.a. “Ricardo Noel Moya,” “Ricardo Barbosa,” and “Alberto Javier Loza Chamorro,” 36, of Boyle Heights and currently an inmate in Arizona state prison; Pablo Raul Lugo Larroig, a.k.a. “Walter Loza,” 41, of Rialto; Victor Hugo Valencia Solorzano, 60, of the Rampart Village neighborhood of Los Angeles; Jorge Enrique Alban, 33, of South Los Angeles; Jeson Nelon Presilla Flores, 42, of Upland; and Eduardo Macias Ibarra, 36, of the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles.
“Mestanza, Padilla, Lugo, Valencia, and Alban also 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,” according to the DOJ release.
Padilla is serving a prison sentence in Arizona for third-degree burglary with unlawful entry, according to officials.
On the evening of July 10, 2022, Mestanza, Lugo, and Alban scouted a Brinks semitruck leaving an international jewelry show in San Mateo with 73 bags containing millions of dollars of jewelry, according to the federal complaint.
From the evening of July 10 to the morning of July 11, Mestanza, Padilla, Lugo, Valencia, Presilla, Macias, and other co-conspirators followed the Brinks truck approximately 300 miles from that jewelry show in San Mateo to rest stops in Buttonwillow and Lebec, north of Los Angeles, the DOJ alleged.
Mestanza, Padilla, Lugo, and Valencia are also alleged to have stolen $240,573 worth of Samsung electronics from an interstate cargo shipment in Ontario on March 2, 2022, according to the Department of Justice. The government also alleged the same crew robbed a box truck driver of $57,377 worth of Apple AirTags, brandishing a knife and threatening the driver.
If convicted, Mestanza, Padilla, Lugo, Valencia, and Alban would face statutory maximum sentences of 20 years in federal prison for each robbery charge, and all defendants would face a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for the theft conspiracy charge and 10 years in federal prison for each theft charge, according to the release.
