http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/ ... 4162.story

Boca Raton police arrest suspect in violent jewel heist
By Dianna Cahn | SunSentinel.com
8:20 PM EST, January 29, 2009
BOCA RATON - Police announced the arrest Thursday of a suspect in a brazen jewelry heist last year by what they believe is an international gang of thieves who roam the country and hold up jewel couriers.

Police said Oscar Londono, 29, is one of four men who held up a jewelry courier outside St. Moritz Jewelers in Boca Raton on May 7, 2008, boxing in his vehicle and making off with more than $100,000 in precious gems. Londono and two others escaped; a fourth man, Wilmar Sierra-Perez, was killed when the courier opened fire.

Londono, who was arrested in Houston on immigration charges, was transferred to Palm Beach County this week and charged with both the robbery and second-degree murder in Wilmar's death.

Boca Raton Police Chief Dan Alexander said the murder charge sent an important message.



"It was a violent felony. Someone lost their life," he said. "This speaks to the accountability they have."

The courier, Leon Rozio of West Miami, was not charged in the shooting.

During the course of the investigation, detectives worked with agencies across the country, identifying similar heists that they attribute to a loose network of jewel thieves who operate under aliases and don't appear to have a single base of operation, Alexander said.

"This extends beyond our state and probably internationally," Alexander said. He said both Londono and Sierra-Perez are from Colombia.

Police in Houston contacted Boca Raton in December saying they had been investigating similar crimes and had arrested Londono on immigration charges, Alexander said.

Boca Raton detectives flew to Houston thinking Londono might be a person of interest only to discover he was one of the suspects. Londono told them that Sierra-Perez was his cousin. He said he was not in the state when he got a call from Sierra-Perez last year telling him to come participate in the heist and he did.