The final defendant in a flash-mob-style jewelry theft ring that federal agents dubbed Operation Boujee Bandits has now folded. Leroy Ortega, a 43-year-old Colombian national known as “El Enano,” pleaded guilty in Miami this week for his role in a string of violent rip-and-run robberies on jewelry couriers that prosecutors say drained more than $5 million from high-end retailers. Ortega admitted taking part in two of the heists and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 1, 2026. He faces a statutory maximum of 20 years in federal prison, closing out a multi-year federal investigation that tracked the crew across South Florida and beyond.
According to a Justice Department press release, Ortega pleaded guilty to Hobbs Act robbery conspiracy and two counts of Hobbs Act robbery. Prosecutors say he and his co-conspirators used rented cars obtained with fake IDs to tail jewelry couriers after they left major trade hubs. “This transnational theft crew came to the United States to steal from American businesses,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva said in the release. Federal officials credited the FBI Tampa Field Office, along with a long list of local police agencies, with helping dismantle the network…