A Florida man was arrested Wednesday in connection with the daring theft of almost $5 million of gold from a tractor-trailer that was hijacked almost exactly one year ago in North Carolina, authorities said.
Adalberto Perez, 46, of Opa-locka, Florida, was arrested at about dawn in Opa-locka, said Michael Leverock, a special agent with the FBI in Miami. Charges are pending an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Miami. No further details were immediately available.
Two men hijacked the TransValue Inc. truck on March 1, 2015, in Wilson County, North Carolina, which was shipping precious metals — including $4.9 million in gold — from Miami to Boston, authorities aid at the time.
The men, claiming in Spanish to be police, placed traffic cones around the truck, restrained the truck's armed occupants and made off with the gold, which was being transported as bars in three barrels, the FBI said.
Authorities released a picture of one of the bars — worth $470,000 and $500,000 at the time — after it was recovered in South Florida in April 2015.
Authorities haven't revealed the circumstances under which that gold bar was found, but in September, another man, Miguel Bover, 49, was sentenced to 3½ years in prison for trying to fence one of the stolen bars at a Miami-area pawn shop.
Investigators said in court records that Bover wasn't believed to have been involved in the heist itself but had been approached by someone believed to have been directly involved.
Leverock said the FBI said is still offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to two other men in connection with the robbery, sketches of whom were released Wednesday.
