Federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced the indictment of seven people believed to be behind the largest jewel heist in U.S. history.

Officials charged seven men with the theft of 24 bags containing $100 million worth of gold, diamonds, gems, luxury watches, and other items from a Brink’s armored truck driving through California on July 11, 2022.

Ranging in age from 31 to 60, the men were all Los Angeles-area residents, living in Boyle Heights, Westlake, and Rampart Village, California.

The Hollywood-style robbery, which Justice Department officials said was the biggest jewelry grab they had ever seen, started when the goods were loaded onto a Brink’s truck following a gem and jewelry show south of San Francisco.

The shows featured everything from decorative beads to rare Rolex watches. On the truck was millions of dollars’ worth of jewelry Jean Malki, a veteran jeweler with four decades under his belt, had wrapped, including a necklace containing 25 carats of yellow diamonds, a rare Australian-mined black opal, and a Burmese ruby, he told New York magazine at the time.

Malki and a handful of other jewelers handed their entire collection to a Brink’s guard, who packed it into his truck and told them they would get it the next day at a show about five hours south in Pasadena, California.

That day never came.

Around 2 a.m., at a truck stop near the Los Angeles County line, the guard driving the Brink’s truck went inside to get something to eat. His co-pilot was asleep in a berth in the cab. When the driver returned less than half an hour later, he saw that 24 bags containing precious gems such as the ones Malki and 14 others had packed were gone.

According to the indictment, the men took the loot and headed for East Hollywood.

Some of the defendants allegedly did not grasp how large their haul was. In the days after the robbery, several of the co-conspirators deactivated their cellphones. The court filing did not say how the men gained access to the trailer.

The Brink’s driver told deputies at the time that he was “pretty sure we were followed from the show where we got loaded.”

For months, the jewelers waited for law enforcement to announce arrests or leads in the case.
Nothing happened.

Some of the jewelers lost their entire livelihoods. Others were locked in a legal battle with Richmond, Virginia-based Brink’s that prevented them from receiving any insurance payouts.

Almost three years later, federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment against seven co-conspirators who allegedly carried out the theft at the Flying J Travel Center, about 70 miles north of Los Angeles.

The men were each charged with conspiracy to commit theft from interstate and foreign shipments and theft from interstate and foreign shipments.

“It was a long time coming, and there were times when the victims and members of the team wondered whether we’d see this success,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Butler said Tuesday.

Some of the stolen jewelry, including watches, was recovered after search warrants were executed. Authorities also recovered a large amount of cash. Butler said search warrants are still being pursued and that many of the stolen jewels remain missing.

Two of the defendants arrested appeared in federal court on Tuesday. Another is an inmate at an Arizona prison, according to a press release from the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles. The co-conspirators, some of whom use aliases, are Carlos Victor Mestanza Cercado, Jazael Padilla Resto, Pablo Raul Lugo Larroig, Victor Hugo Valencia Solorzano, Jorge Enrique Alban, Jeson Nelon Presilla Flores, and Eduardo Macias Ibarra.

Some of the defendants have also been charged with smaller heists throughout San Bernardino County.

SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS TENNESSEE BAN ON TRANSGENDER PROCEDURES FOR MINORS

If convicted, Mestanza, Padilla, Lugo, Valencia, and Alban would face up to 20 years in federal prison for each robbery charge. All the defendants would face up to five years for the theft conspiracy charge and 10 years for each theft charge.

The California caper drew comparisons to infamous international heists, including the 1983 Brink’s-Mat gold bullion job near London Heathrow Airport, 2003’s Antwerp diamond theft in Belgium, and 2015’s Hatton Garden burglary in London.