FBI agents on Wednesday dug up the Fontana backyard of an armored-truck driver convicted of pulling off a $1-million theft, and recovered about $600,000.
Agents recovered the pile of carefully wrapped $20 and $100 bills in a large bin after excavating the yard of the suburban home in the 9300 block of Marcona Avenue, said Laura Eimiller, an FBI spokeswoman.
The home was owned by Cesar Yanez, one of the two armored-truck drivers who carried out a scheme last year to slip more than $1 million out of the stacks of cash they ferried from a Bank of America distribution center in downtown Los Angeles to locations across Southern California.
During one of those armored-truck trips in June 2014, prosecutors have said, Yanez and fellow driver Aldo Esquivel Vega parked at Los Anayas restaurant on West Adams Boulevard, stashed bags containing about $1 million in cash in a trash can and carried on with their route, hoping to avoid detection and recover the money later, according to an indictment.
An accomplice then picked up the money, prosecutors said.
But it was only a matter of time before someone noticed such a large chunk of money was missing. Eventually, a tipster told authorities that the two men were behind the vanishing cash.
Authorities arrested Yanez and Vega, who lived in Pomona, last December. During searches of Yanez's home -- the same one whose backyard was targeted Wednesday -- agents found about $85,000 in cash, prosecutors said.
A third person suspected of being involved in the scheme -- Jovita Medina Guzman of San Bernardino -- was eventually arrested on suspicion of handling the money.
Yanez's wife, Leticia Yanez, is suspected of picking up the cash from the trash can. She has been charged with bank larceny and conspiracy.
Cesar Yanez was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison for bank larceny and ordered to pay back nearly $1 million dollars. But until Wednesday, the location of most the the loot remained a mystery.