ICE Deports Primary Suspect in $100 Million Armored Truck Heist
In July 2022, seven suspects stole $100 million worth of diamonds, emeralds, gold, and designer watches from a Brink’s armored truck. Federal prosecutors charged the suspects and were determined to recover some of the items, or at least make someone pay for the largest such heist in U.S. history. Then ICE deported their primary suspect while he was out on bail.
One former federal prosecutor summed up the entire situation by saying, “This really was the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing.”
Jeson Nelson Presilla Flores was out on bail in September when he got himself picked up by ICE. Immigration and Customs Enforcement should have been suspicious when the lawful permanent resident waived his rights to trial and volunteered to deport himself to Chile. A special immigration judge didn’t bother to check if Flores had any other charges or upcoming court dates—let alone whether he was out on bail. The judge just agreed that ICE should deport the lawful permanent resident to Ecuador in December.
The largest armored truck jewel heist in U.S. history
Prosecutors allege that the thieves watched an international jewelry show in San Francisco. When an armored truck run by Brinks left, they followed it south. At a rural freeway stop in Lebec, north of Los Angeles, they saw one driver was napping and watched the other leave the truck to get food. The suspects then nabbed 24 bags containing the valuables and disappeared.
Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor, described the situation as extremely unusual. “It’s just beyond me how they would deport him without the prosecutors… being in on the conversation.”
Flores was facing up to 15 years in prison. After ICE turned him loose in Ecuador, he disappeared. And with him, the whereabouts of $100 million worth of stolen jewelry. Federal prosecutors are scrambling, trying to lay the groundwork so they can reopen the case if Flores ever shows his face in the U.S. again. But something tells me that’s unlikely.
The defendant’s lawyer’s already filed a motion to dismiss the indictment. His argument: Flores had certain rights while under criminal prosecution and they were violated by the unlawful deportation, thus the case should be closed permanently.
It would be nice if the world was so simple that we could just round up all the bad guys and set them loose somewhere else (Ecuador?) and be safer. But the truth is the modern world is much more interconnected than that. It looks like Flores played ICE expertly, and they helped him get away with the biggest jewel heist in U.S. history.
