Seven men have been charged over the theft of more than $100 million in diamonds, gems and watches from a Brinks truck transporting them to an international jewelry show in 2022.
The robbery, considered to be the largest jewelry heist in US history, took place in July of that year, while the truck was parked at a rest stop in Lebec, California. Authorities have charged all seven with two counts of conspiracy to commit theft from interstate and foreign shipment as well as theft, while five face additional charges of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery and interference, according to a June 11 indictment from the US Central District Court of California.
“According to the indictment, on the evening of July 10, 2022, [some of the accused] scouted a Brinks semitruck leaving an international jewelry show in San Mateo, California, with 73 bags containing millions of dollars of jewelry,” the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said Tuesday. “From the evening of July 10 to the morning of July 11, [they] and other coconspirators 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. While the truck was stopped in Lebec, those defendants stole 24 bags from the Brinks truck containing approximately $100 million of jewelry. In the following days, [they] all deactivated their cellphone numbers that they had been using during the heist.”
Four of the robbers are also alleged to have stolen $240,573 worth of electronics from an interstate cargo shipment in March, 2022. Those suspects, along with a fifth, are charged with taking $57,377 worth of Apple AirTags from a separate truck as well. In May of that year, they allegedly attempted to steal from a truck at another rest stop, before going on to rob another shipment with $14,081 in electronics, the US Attorney’s Office said.
If convicted, five of the seven would face statutory maximum sentences of 20 years in federal prison for each robbery charge, while all 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, the attorney’s office noted.
Authorities recovered some of the missing jewelry on June 16. However, they did not disclose the total value of that recovery.
Image: A Brinks truck. (Shutterstock)
