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February 24, 2004
The United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California announced that Jorge Zamora-Suarez was sentenced today to 70 months in prison for committing robberies of jewelry couriers in Northern California and the Central Coast in August 2001. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn R. Walker following a guilty plea on one count of conspiracy to transport stolen merchandise across state lines and one count under the federal Hobbs Act of affecting commerce by robbery.
Mr. Zamora-Suarez, 34, of Canoga Park, California, originally from the South American country of Colombia, was indicted by a federal grand jury on October 30, 2001. Count one of the indictment charged Mr. Zamora-Suarez with being part of a conspiracy to rob jewelry couriers and to transport those stolen goods across state lines, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. Mr. Zamora-Suarez was charged in count two of the indictment with a robbery of three jewelry couriers that occurred in Millbrae, California on August 26, 2001, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951. The indictment also alleged that the defendant or his co-conspirators committed similar robberies in Sausalito, San Francisco, Sacramento and Santa Maria.
According to the plea agreement, Mr. Zamora-Suarez admitted to committing the Millbrae and Santa Maria robberies. In addition, Mr. Zamora-Suarez admitted that a dangerous weapon was used in the Millbrae robbery and that the total value of the jewelry obtained as a result of all of the robberies was more than $800,000. The defendant admitted to delivering the jewelry to his co-defendant Esteban Calderon in a hotel room in West Covina, California on September 4, 2001 so that Mr. Calderon could return to his home in New York to "fence" the jewelry.
Judge Walker sentenced the Defendant to 70 months in federal prison, as well as a three-year period of supervised release. The defendant has been in custody since he was first arrested on September 7, 2001. Mr. Zamora-Suarez's co-defendant Calderon pled guilty on June 10, 2003 to the conspiracy charge in count one of the indictment related to his September 4, 2001 receipt of jewelry from Mr. Zamora-Suarez and his plans to transport that stolen merchandise across state lines to New York. Mr. Calderon was sentenced by Judge Walker on December 9, 2003 to 27 months imprisonment.
The prosecution was the result of an investigation by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, officers of the Los Angeles Police Department and other local law enforcement officers. Kyle F. Waldinger and Anne-Christine Massullo are the Assistant U.S. Attorneys who prosecuted the case.
A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney's Office's website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can. Related court documents and information may be found on the District Court website at www.cand.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.cand.uscourts/gov.
All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney's Office should be directed to Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew J. Jacobs at (415) 436-7181.
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