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FBI digs up $600,000 from California yard
of former armored truck driver
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[October 08, 2015]
By Victoria Cavaliere
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Federal agents dug
up about $600,000 buried in the backyard of a Los Angeles-area home once
occupied by a former armored truck driver who has admitted to helping
steal more than $1 million, federal law enforcement said on Wednesday.
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 The money, in denominations of $100 and $20 and contained in
plastic containers, was excavated from beneath a patch of trees in
the former home of Cesar Yanez, in Fontana, east of Los Angeles, the
FBI said.
Yanez pleaded guilty to conspiracy and bank robbery in connection
with the 2014 heist of an armored car, the FBI said. He was
sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison.
Yanez and another armored truck driver, Aldo Esquivel Vega, of
Pomona, California, were transporting a large shipment of cash for
Bank of America in June, 2014, when they stopped in a Los Angeles
parking lot and electronically opened the doors, according to
federal officials.
 More than $1 million was removed and ferried off in a trash can,
authorities have said.
About $85,000 was recovered at the same Fontana home after Yanez's
arrest, the FBI said. The bulk of the money has been missing for the
past year.
An FBI spokeswoman said an investigation by agents and information
from a source led authorities to the backyard site.
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She said authorities were still working to uncover where the
remainder of the missing money, some $400,000, had been spent or
hidden.
Vega is awaiting sentencing for his role in the heist. Two other
people, including Yanez's wife, are awaiting trial for helping to
facilitate the crime.
(Editing by Paul Tait)
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