SSPE recovers loot worth millions

Ciudad Juarez.- More than 1.8 million pesos worth of merchandise is the value of what was recovered by the State Public Security Secretariat from what was stolen at gunpoint from a jewelry store in Plaza Juárez Mall on Sunday afternoon.

The alleged assailants, Edwin Omar MM, Daniel RT, Karen Paola SR, Roxane SR, Francisco Javier RS, and Juan Gabriel A., were formally charged with the crimes of aggravated robbery and criminal association for an operation that seemed like something out of a movie, but in which they did not count on the monitoring of the State Police video surveillance cameras, which led to their capture two hours after the incident.

During the initial hearing for criminal case 5444/2024, the Public Prosecutor’s Office gave the narrative of the events: on September 1 at around 1:20 p.m., four armed men arrived at the D’Rayos jewelry store in Plaza Juárez Mall (intersection of Tecnológico and Ejército Nacional avenues), and one of them fired a handgun toward the ceiling and floor of the shopping center on several occasions with the aim of causing fear and coercing the employees of the store so that they would not resist.

Once the threat was made, three people smashed the reinforced display cases of the jewelry store with sledgehammers, removed all kinds of 10 and 14 carat gold and silver jewelry, and took a number of pieces that have not yet been specified by the establishment.

The assailants fled in a maroon 2000 Ford Windstar pickup truck, which was later abandoned on the streets of the Infonavit Casas Grandes neighborhood, and there they boarded a gray Jeep Grand Cherokee.

This is where the work of the Sentinel Platform began. The Grand Cherokee was located at the intersection of Rafael Arrieta and Dámaso Alonso streets, then on Benjamín Herrera street towards Rivera Lara Avenue, and then on the latter on the way to the Technological Institute.

Once on this main road, they headed to Manuel J. Clouthier towards Las Torres, and the cameras located them at the intersection of Tamaulipas and Armando B. Chávez, where the state police approached, and meters further south, at Benito Juárez and Sonora was the Grand Cherokee with allegedly five of the accused, Edwin Omar, Roxane, Karen Paola, Francisco Javier and Daniel.

Four weapons were found in the vehicle: a .40-caliber Glock 27 with seven live rounds, a 9-millimeter Smith & Wesson Springfield with 10 live rounds, a 9-millimeter Luger with five live rounds, and a BSKA Century Armas rifle with five 7.62×39-caliber live rounds in one magazine and seven in another.

In addition, in the trunk, along with the rifle, was a black cloth bag containing 68 .40 cartridges; 29 9-millimeter cartridges; 30 .223 cartridges; and 40 7.62×39 cartridges.

The evidence

Likewise, a backpack was found with three bags inside, which contained what is presumed to be the stolen 10 and 14 carat jewelry: 29 gold earrings, five silver rings, 42 gold rings, three gray chains, 11 bracelets, three gold pendants and one silver pendant, 15 bracelets, five gold chains, six gold bracelets, 29 silver bracelets and five more silver chains. In total, 154 pieces that, according to an appraiser from the District Attorney’s Office in the Northern Zone, have a value of one million 825 thousand 700 pesos on the market.

Along with the weapons and jewelry, the two vehicles and what was inside them and some objects at the robbery site were seized.

The prosecution seized plastic and cardboard boxes of different colors, including 16 gold-colored boxes with reddish stains that are presumed to be traces of blood, as well as six gold bracelets stained with blood, a gold pendant and three silver chains.

A piece of glass with blood on it was also seized. According to the regional prosecutor, Carlos Manuel Salas, one of the assailants was injured by the glass shards from the display cases, leaving a trail that will make his identification possible.

The sixth defendant, Juan Gabriel A., was arrested pursuant to an arrest warrant issued on Wednesday by the same judge in charge of this criminal case, and executed that same day, in order to present them all together in the formulation of the indictment.

During the entire initial hearing, where the charges and the background of the investigation were disclosed, Edwin Omar did not stop talking to other defendants and complaining. When the Public Prosecutor described what one of the witnesses, an employee of the robbed establishment, said, he was heard saying “damn.” Other times he said “that is pure bullshit” or “how that guy talks, fuck,” during the intervention of the social representation. On repeated occasions the agents of Security and Penitentiary Custody called his attention, without any effect.

After the legality of the arrest of the first five was declared, as well as their detention, after the charges were formulated and the accused decided to remain silent, the background of the investigation was read and immediately the accused requested the duplication of the constitutional term of 72 hours (that is, 144 hours) to prepare their defense, so the continuation of the initial hearing will take place on September 9 at 9:00 in the morning to find out their legal situation.

On the other hand, the six were sent, without any contrary arguments from the two private defenders and the public defender, to preventive detention justified under risks of kidnapping, risk to the victim, witnesses and society, for a term of 24 months.

They are all charged with aggravated robbery and criminal association and, with the exception of Juan Gabriel A., the rest were also charged with carrying firearms and possession of cartridges.

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