FONTANA, Calif. - FBI agents dug up more than $500,000 on Wednesday from the backyard of a Southern California home where an armoured truck driver who admitted stealing $1 million had once lived.
The money, in the form of $20 and $100 bills, was found inside a trash bin buried in the backyard of the Fontana home, FBI spokesman Laura Eimiller said.
Cesar Yanez, who lived in the home, pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy and bank robbery for the 2014 heist of a Loomis armoured truck. The 38-year-old former Loomis driver was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison.
His fellow driver, Aldo Vega, 28, of Pomona, also pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.
Yanez's wife, Leticia Yanez, and a family friend, Jovita Guzman, face trial in March.
At the time of Yanez's sentencing, only $115,000 had been recovered, most of it from the Fontana house, and U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II said he suspected Yanez knew where the rest was hidden.
Eimiller said FBI agents and Los Angeles police, acting on a tip, found most of it Wednesday in neatly wrapped bundles. About $300,000 is still missing.
Prosecutors say the money was part of a multimillion-dollar shipment being delivered to a Bank of America branch in Los Angeles when Yanez and Vega stopped their truck in a restaurant parking lot.
They removed the $1 million and hid it in a trash can, authorities said, adding they believe Yanez's wife picked it up.
They believe Guzman, 40, of San Bernardino, delivered some of it to Vega.
