Trucking News · California · November 10, 2026

Truckers: Brinks Jewelry Heist Defendant Agrees to Plead Guilty

Illustration of a black semi-truck with a plain silver trailer parked alone at night in a mountain rest stop lot under street lamps — Illustration for this story. Not a photo of a specific location.

Image caption: Illustration: AI-generated illustration, not a photo of the people, vehicles or places in this story. It shows a black semi-truck with a plain silver trailer parked alone at night in a mountain rest stop lot under street lamps.

One of the men charged in the theft of nearly $100 million in jewelry from a Brinks tractor-trailer at a California rest stop has agreed to plead guilty, according to court papers reported Monday by City News Service in stories carried by NBC Los Angeles and KESQ. Officials consider the 2022 theft the largest jewelry heist in U.S. history.

The defendant, a 32-year-old Pasadena man, is expected to plead guilty to a single federal count of interference with commerce by robbery. KESQ reports the plea is expected Nov. 19 in federal court in Riverside, while NBC Los Angeles says the date is still to be scheduled. Until he enters the plea in court, the agreement is a plan, not a conviction. The charge carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison, plus a period of supervised release and restitution to be determined.

A long night on the highway

According to the plea agreement, filed Monday in federal court in Los Angeles, the case began on the evening of July 10, 2022. That night, the defendant and co-defendants scouted a Brinks semi-trailer truck as it left an international jewelry show in San Mateo, the document states. The truck carried 73 bags holding millions of dollars in gold, diamonds, rubies, emeralds and watches.

From that evening into the next morning, the group followed the truck nearly 300 miles, from the jewelry show to rest stops in Buttonwillow and Lebec, north of Los Angeles, the agreement says. While the truck was stopped in Lebec, authorities believe the defendants took two dozen of the bags, holding nearly $100 million in jewelry.

In the following days, the agreement says, the group shut off the phone numbers used during the theft and returned to Los Angeles County to divide and sell the merchandise, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Other cargo thefts in the case

Prosecutors also allege the same group stole $240,573 in Samsung electronics from an interstate cargo shipment in Ontario, California, on March 2, 2022, and took $57,377 in Apple AirTags from a box truck driver. On May 25, 2022, prosecutors say, the group tried to break into a truck at a Fontana rest stop and then took about $14,081 in Samsung electronics from another interstate shipment in Fontana. Those are allegations in the case.

The plea agreement says the defendant was picked up on July 1, 2025, at the international airport in Panama City, Panama, during a layover on a trip from Guatemala to Ecuador, after the federal indictment was made public in June 2025.

Where the case stands

Three co-defendants are scheduled for trial in March in downtown Los Angeles. Law enforcement officials are still searching for two others, and a seventh defendant was deported, officials said.

For truck drivers, the case is a reminder of how much planning can go into a cargo theft. In this account, the truck was watched from the moment it left the show, and the theft came during a stop, not on the open road. Big Rig Daily has also covered a forecast that cargo theft losses could top $1 billion in the U.S. and Canada in 2027.