MIAMI \u2014 On Saturday afternoon, Leroy Ortega, known as \u201cEl Enano,\u201d Spanish for \u201cThe Dwarf,\u201d was at FDC Miami, a federal administrative detention center in downtown, according to inmate records. <\/p>\n
Ortega, 43, was awaiting sentencing after investigators and prosecutors identified him as being part of a crew of clumsy thieves who traveled from Colombia to South Florida for jewelry heists. <\/p>\n
Federal prosecutors announced on Friday that Ortega, 43, pleaded guilty to Hobbs Act robbery conspiracy and two counts of Hobbs Act robbery on Feb. 12 in Miami. <\/p>\n
Ortega was among the robbers who likely mistook a photographer for a jewelry courier when they stole a case with a computer and photography equipment on Oct. 16, 2019, in Miami-Dade County, according to prosecutors. <\/p>\n
Ortega was also involved in the theft of a salesperson\u2019s backpack with jewelry valued at about $125,000 that was in a car on Nov. 7, 2019, in Miami Beach, according to prosecutors. <\/p>\n
Ortega\u2019s sentencing is on May 1. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n
THE FBI OPERATION<\/p>\n
Ortega was among a group of about a dozen defendants in three indictments after robberies related to the International Jewelry Exchanges in Aventura and the Seybold Jewelry Building in Downtown Miami prompted the FBI\u2019s \u201cOperation Boujee Bandits<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWith our hardworking special agents, analysts, and professional staff triaging leads and sharing threat intelligence with law enforcement partners around the world, we\u2019ve been able to efficiently and effectively disrupt these criminal groups,\u201d Mathew Fodor, the FBI special agent in charge of the FBI Atlanta field office, said in a statement<\/a>. <\/p>\n Agents from the FBI field offices in Miami and Tampa also worked on the operation. Miami-Dade and Palm Beach deputies, and police officers from the Miami Beach, Tampa, Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, and Fort Pierce also participated in the operation. <\/p>\n \u201cThis transnational theft crew came to the United States to steal from American businesses and preyed upon unsuspecting, hard-working citizens who were just trying to do their jobs as jewelry couriers,\u201d Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva, of the Justice Department\u2019s criminal division, said in a statement, adding, \u201cOrtega played an integral role with other already convicted defendants to execute sophisticated, high-value robberies that caused millions of dollars in losses. The Criminal Division will investigate and prosecute organized theft networks and hold to account those individuals who participated in them at all levels.\u201d<\/p>\n The Miami-Dade State Attorney\u2019s Office, the Justice Department\u2019s Office of International Affairs, and the Criminal Division\u2019s Office of Judicial Attach\u00e9 in Bogot\u00e1, Colombia, were also involved in the cases. <\/p>\n Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 On Saturday afternoon, Leroy Ortega, known as \u201cEl Enano,\u201d Spanish for \u201cThe Dwarf,\u201d was at FDC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":{"0":"post-155886","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hialeah","8":"tag-hialeah","9":"tag-hialeah-headlines","10":"tag-hialeah-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}