2 Jewelry Dealers Robbed in Holdup Near Airport

In the latest in a wave of Southland jewel holdups, four gunmen forced a car in which two jewelry dealers were traveling off a street near Los Angeles International Airport late Thursday, taking two bags of jewels and cash.

Police said Friday that the robbery may have been committed by a sophisticated ring of Colombian nationals believed to be responsible for terrorizing jewelers in Southern California and other parts of the country. “The MO appears similar to the other ones,” police spokesman Mike Partain said Friday.

Ring members are suspected of robbing $1.5 million worth of diamond-studded jewelry Wednesday afternoon from two vendors as they left a Newport Beach shopping center. The robbers have also hit jewelers this year in Encino and Castaic, authorities say.

Word of the latest incident--in which the attackers rammed the car, pinned it against a guardrail and jumped out with guns in hand--quickly spread Friday through downtown Los Angeles’ jewelry community. The news chilled dealers and shop owners who are already shaken by the string of violence.

“The operative word is fear,” said Alberta E. Hultman, executive director of the California Jewelers Assn., which represents more than 1,000 jewelers across the state. “It’s a war right now.”

Several jewelry district store owners interviewed Friday about the latest robbery refused to give their names, saying that they were afraid of being targeted. “What for, so they can come after me?” said one.

To help jewelers from becoming easy targets, Hultman said, the association and the Los Angeles Police Department are planning to hold training sessions focusing on crime prevention measures during the next several weeks.

Although jewelry stores have been targeted across the country, Southern California has the largest share of robberies targeting traveling jewelry sales people, according to figures by the New York-based Jewelers Security Alliance.

Because vendors travel and get in and out of vehicles at different locations, they present more opportunities to be robbed, experts say.

“It used to be jewelry stores were getting hit, but now it seems they’re hitting the guys bringing the jewels,” said Frank A. Barcott, a retired Long Beach police officer who runs an Orange County security firm specializing in protecting jewelers.

In the Thursday night attack, police said, the two jewelry dealers may have been followed as they drove to the airport. They were at Century and Sepulveda boulevards when they were hit shortly before 10 p.m.

With the car trapped against the rail, the four robbers surrounded it. One of them smashed a rear window and grabbed the two bags of jewels and cash from the back seat, police said. The assailants, described only as Latino men, got in their car and took off along Century Boulevard.

Police did not disclose how much the jewels and cash were worth.

Since January, police say, the Colombian syndicate is suspected of about 30 robberies across California that have netted about $7 million worth of jewelry. Many of the crimes have occurred in Los Angeles County.

In many of the incidents, victims have told police that they believed they were followed. The attackers often travel in groups and communicate with one another using radios or cellular phones, police say.

Often, the bandits will puncture tires or pull out valve stems while the jewelers make a stop. The unsuspecting victims get in their cars but later pull over because their tires are flat. Then the assailants quickly swoop down, police say.

“They target these individuals,” said Partain, the LAPD spokesman. “Before they know it, they’re accosted.”