50 years prison for Midland jewel gang

Jun 20 2011 by Jonny Greatrex, Sunday Mercury

A COLOMBIAN gang of jewel thieves caught during an audacious daylight raid in the Midlands has been jailed for more than 50 years.

The sophisticated six-strong group identified high-value targets in Birmingham, Leicester and London, and then robbed them in the street.

A violent seven-month spree netted them more than £1,000,000, including a staggering £250,000 from one attack where they stole 65 gold rings.

Now the South American criminals have been locked up for a total of 51 years after pleading guilty to scores of robbery charges.

The well-drilled raiders were caught after undercover cops swooped during an attempted heist on a man in Leicester’s Golden Mile jewellery district.

Officers followed them from Birmingham to the East Midlands where they witnessed the gang carry out a distraction burglary on a jewel shop customer.

“They were an extremely close-knit, organised group who had been operating as a surveillance team, using spotters in order to select their victims and commit offences,” said Detective Constable Daniel Candler, of the Met’s London Crime Squad.

“They utilised a variety of methods, from distraction theft to out and out violent robbery resulting in injury.

“This was their sole means of income and, until our intervention, they had been committing violent and lucrative offences across the UK with impunity.”

The gang comprised John Bernal-Patino, 28, Ivan Amescua, 41, Christiano Villamizar-Leal, 39, Dianna Albarracin-Tovar, 34, Rodolfo Gonzalez-Ramos, 31, and 27 year-old Luis Silva.