Seven Charged in America’s Largest Jewelry Theft

By Rob Bates | June 18, 2025

Seven Southern California men have been indicted for their alleged involvement in what the Department of Justice (DOJ) has called “the largest jewelry theft in U.S. history”—the 2022 heist of $100 million in goods from a Brink’s armored car.

Some of the stolen jewelry was recovered during the execution of search warrants on June 16, DOJ said.

The seven suspects—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—were charged with conspiracy to commit theft from interstate and foreign shipment, and theft from interstate and foreign shipment.

Two of the suspects are in custody, while Padilla is currently serving a sentence in Arizona state prison for third-degree burglary, a Justice Department spokesperson tells JCK.

The indictment charges that on July 11, 2022, the men trailed a Brinks semitruck transporting $100 million in jewelry from a show in San Mateo, Calif., and stole 24 bags of jewels from the vehicle while it was parked at a rest stop.

In related news, a New York federal judge recently granted Brink’s a summary judgment in its case against 11 jewelers who reported their goods had been stolen. Brink’s argued that it should have to pay the companies only $8.7 million, as that was the combined value of the items they listed on the pickup truck’s manifest.

The companies asserted that they should be reimbursed in full, and said that Brink’s employees knew the jewelers had undervalued their merchandise and that the contract they signed with Brink’s was “unenforceable” and “ambiguous.”

In a 75-page opinion issued June 12, U.S. district judge Paul G. Gardephe wrote that the courier’s contract “unambiguously requires a Brink’s customer to accurately declare the ‘actual monetary value’ of the merchandise it is requesting Brink’s to transport…. Given that it is undisputed that [the jewelers] packed and sealed the bags in which their merchandise was prepared for transport, Brink’s would have had no way to determine the contents of the bags, much less whether [the jewelers] had accurately estimated the value of their shipments.”

He ruled that “Brink’s liability for loss of or damage to defendants’ property will not exceed the lesser of the declared value or the actual monetary value as of the date of loss.”

Jerry Kroll, lead attorney for the heist victims, tells JCK by email, “We’re pleased to see law enforcement’s progress and that some of the stolen jewelry has been recovered. The indictments confirm what we’ve maintained all along: that Brink’s inadequate security measures made this theft possible. We hope additional property will be recovered, and our clients look forward to continuing to seek justice through both the civil and criminal justice systems.”

Scott Guginsky, executive vice president of the Jewelers’ Security Alliance, says that the case shows the danger of under-declaring value of items during shipping.

He commends the FBI for its work on a “complex, difficult case.”

Neither Brink’s nor its attorneys responded to a request for comment by press time.

(Photo: Getty Images)