Federal immigration authorities’ decision to let a jewelry-heist suspect leave the country while a criminal case against him was still pending has prompted a dispute in federal court, according to court filings cited by the Associated Press.
Prosecutors said they were planning to try the defendant, Jeson Nelon Presilla Flores, after the government charged him last year in what prosecutors described as a $100 million Brink’s armored truck theft believed by them to be the largest jewelry heist in U.S. history. Prosecutors said they were preparing for trial, yet Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported Flores in late December after he requested voluntary departure.
Flores was among seven people charged in the July 2022 Brink’s theft, prosecutors said. The indictment alleges the suspects scouted the Brink’s tractor-trailer departing from an international jewelry show near San Francisco and then targeted it at a rural freeway rest stop north of Los Angeles, where they took millions worth of diamonds, emeralds, gold, rubies and designer watches.
Prosecutors said Flores faced up to 15 years in federal prison if convicted on charges including conspiracy to commit theft from interstate and foreign shipment and theft from interstate and foreign shipment. He pleaded not guilty, according to the AP report.
Flores’ departure, prosecutors said, followed an immigration hearing on Dec. 16, when he opted for deportation to Chile. Prosecutors said the immigration judge denied his voluntary departure application but issued a final order of removal, and he was sent to Ecuador.
In court filings, Flores’ attorney, John D. Robertson, argued that the deportation should lead to the indictment being dismissed permanently, seeking to have the case closed. Robertson said in his motion that what happened to Flores was a violation of his criminal prosecution rights.
Federal prosecutors opposed the motion and asked that any dismissal be issued “without prejudice,” meaning they would seek the ability to bring the case again later if Flores returns to the United States. Prosecutors wrote in their filing that prosecutors are supposed to allow civil immigration processes to play out independently while criminal charges are pending, and that they did so, but that Flores would avoid trial “unless and until he returns to the United States.”
The episode also drew concern from former federal prosecutor Laurie Levenson, the AP report said. Levenson said what happened was extremely unusual, describing it as “just beyond” her how immigration officials could have deported Flores without prosecutors being “in on the conversation,” adding that it reflected a “left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing.”
The jewelry companies that were targeted in the Brink’s theft also sought answers, according to the AP report. Jerry Kroll, an attorney for some of the jewelry companies, told the Los Angeles Times that when a defendant leaves the country before trial, victims are left without a verdict and without closure.
The Brink’s heist unfolded in July 2022, after prosecutors said the suspects scouted the truck leaving a jewelry show near San Francisco. While prosecutors said the victims reported more than $100 million in losses, Brink’s said in the AP report that the stolen items were worth less than $10 million. A lawsuit filed by Brink’s security company said one of the drivers was asleep inside the rig and the other was getting food inside the rest stop when thieves broke in.
ICE did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment, the AP report said.