An Ecuadorean man has agreed to plead guilty to a federal robbery charge over the theft of roughly $100 million worth of jewellery from an armoured truck in California five years ago, in what prosecutors describe as the largest jewellery heist in American history.
Carlos Victor Mestanza Cercado, 32, was one of seven men indicted over the robbery of a Brink’s truck at a highway rest stop north of Los Angeles on 11 July 2022. He was arrested two years ago in Panama, during a layover on a flight from Guatemala to his home country.
The truck was carrying 73 sacks of precious gems and fine jewellery from a major exhibition in the San Francisco Bay area to a storage facility hundreds of miles to the south, ahead of another show scheduled in Pasadena. Mestanza and his co-defendants had followed the shipment in several vehicles for 300 miles, coordinating by mobile phone, before breaking through the locks of the armoured truck while it was parked at a rural rest stop in Kern County and escaping with 24 bags of treasure, according to the authorities.
The stolen collection of fine gold, diamonds, rubies, emeralds and luxury watches was valued at approximately $100 million, the US Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles said.
Mestanza signed the plea agreement last week. Under its terms, he will plead guilty to a single count of interference with commerce by robbery, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison, in return for prosecutors dropping several other charges he faced, according to court documents filed on Monday. He is expected to formally enter his plea at a hearing set for 19 November. The 22-page agreement states that he is likely to face immediate deportation once his sentence has been served.
The deal covers more than the Brink’s robbery. Mestanza also admitted taking part with his co-defendants in the highway robberies of electronics being shipped by several trucks in March 2022.
Three of his co-defendants are scheduled to stand trial in March 2027 in federal court in Los Angeles, while two others remain at large and a seventh accused member of the gang has been deported, according to the Los Angeles City News Service.
It was not clear from the court documents whether any of the stolen jewellery from the Brink’s heist was ever recovered.
Sources: Reuters, “Accused Ecuadorean thief agrees to plead guilty in largest US jewelry heist”, 10 November 2026 — https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/accused-ecuadorean-thief-agrees-plead-guilty-largest-us-jewelry-heist-2026-11-10/
