Jewel thief gang jailed after tailing gem salesman to petrol station and stealing £2m haul
Three members of an organised ring were sentenced after tailing a gem salesman for miles and distracting him at a Kent petrol station, enabling the theft of rings valued at about £2.25 million.
A trio of jewel thieves were jailed for conspiracy to steal after tailing a gem salesman to a petrol station in Kent and making off with a bag containing rings valued at about £2.25 million. The victim had been selling diamond rings to businesses in Brighton on Jan. 18 last year when the men began following him, driving 57 miles from East Sussex into Kent before the theft at a Wrotham petrol station.
At the site, one of the suspects interfered with the car, causing a flat tyre. As the salesman attempted to drive away he stopped at an air pump, where another defendant engaged him in conversation. While he was distracted, Edgar Ardila-Ruiz, 38, reached into the boot and removed a bag containing the jewellery. Police later recovered CCTV showing the suspects fleeing in a silver Toyota Corolla. The rings had a combined retail value of about £2.25 million and none have been recovered.
Ardila-Ruiz and Monica Diaz, 45, both of no fixed address, pleaded guilty at Maidstone Crown Court, while Florez-Ortiz, 38, from Islington, London, was identified as the third suspect and separately convicted at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court after pleading guilty to theft and criminal damage. Police said all three appeared to be part of a wider gang responsible for similar offences in London and parts of Essex and Hertfordshire. The investigation also showed that a tyre was deflated during the incident, a tactic designed to force the victim to stop at the petrol station and allow the theft.
Ardila-Ruiz and Diaz were sentenced to three years and six months in prison, while Florez-Ortiz received six years and will face extradition proceedings in connection with offences in Belgium in February 2021, where he was sentenced in his absence to more than three years for another jewellery theft. The Kent theft remains unsolved regarding the diamonds, and none were recovered.
Detective Constable Leo Graham of Kent Police, who led the investigation, said the case showed how the trio followed the victim on foot before tailing his car and exploiting a staged distraction to seize the jewellery. He noted the sentences reflected the attackers' place in a larger network, and that the group included other offenders detained over the same period following investigations by multiple police forces. The suspects are also subject to a financial investigation under the Proceeds of Crime Act to claw back potential criminal gains.