Suspects in Jewelry Theft Spree Arrested

Three people arrested this week in Long Beach may be linked to more than 100 jewelry courier robberies in Orange County over the last year, authorities said.

Police gave this account of events Thursday:

A jewelry saleswoman noticed several people in various vehicles following her to various sales stops across Los Angeles and Orange counties, and she alerted authorities.

At 10 a.m., while making a sales call at a department store in Newport Beach’s Fashion Island, the woman called police to report that seven people in two cars had followed her from Century City.

The saleswoman, who had been robbed once before, left the department store and was followed by the two cars--and by detectives from the Newport Beach and Los Angeles police departments.

When police tried to pull over the suspects, they sped away. One of the cars was stopped in Long Beach and its three occupants arrested. The other car, with four men inside, eluded officers on the San Diego Freeway.

Los Angeles residents Carlos Moreno Rey, 30, Fredy Guzman, 27, and Liliana Sandoval, 19, were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit robbery. They were being held Friday at Newport Beach City Jail on $250,000 bond each.

Sgt. Mike McDermott, a spokesman for the Police Department, said the suspects used techniques of experienced robbers.

“We suspect they may have done this for a living,” McDermott said. “Their use of multiple people and vehicles and their surveillance techniques are consistent with other crimes like this.”

Authorities said they think the three suspects are part of a crime syndicate responsible for a large number of the 100 jewelry heists reported in Orange County in the last year.