Inside the Brink's heist probe: how alleged burglars behind $100-million theft were caught

"Trailing a Brink's big rig on Intestate 5 in the San Joaquin Valley, the seven men used burner phones so their signals couldn't be traced to them. At a truck stop along the Grapevine, they pulled off what is believed to be the biggest jewelry heist in U.S. history and vanished into the predawn dark. But one of them had already made a critical mistake."

"Investigators later tracked pings from mobile phones connecting to towers along the route taken by the Brink's 18-wheeler as it traveled from the Bay Area to Lebec. Analyzing that data, they discovered pings from the prepaid phone. They also uncovered another cell number that pinged along the big rig's route and in the vicinity of a location in San Bernardino County where a similar cargo theft had occurred months earlier."

"In June, seven men from the Los Angeles area, ranging in age from 31 to 60, were indicted on theft and conspiracy to commit theft charges for their alleged roles in the crime, which victimized 14 jewelers whose merchandise the big rig was transporting. Some of the men face additional charges; the indictment includes details of a handful of other similar thefts carried out by members of the crew in San Bernardino County in the months ahead of the Lebec job."

Seven men from Los Angeles allegedly tailed a Brink's 18-wheeler on Intestate 5 and used burner phones to avoid detection during a predawn heist at a Grapevine truck stop. The theft potentially involved up to $100 million in jewelry belonging to 14 jewelers. One suspect gave a burner phone number to an officer after witnessing a collision the night before, providing a trace. Mobile-phone pings along the Bay Area-to-Lebec route revealed the prepaid phone and another number linked to prior San Bernardino cargo thefts. Authorities indicted seven men and pursued leads internationally, apprehending at least one suspect.

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