PALM COAST, Fla. – A man accused of helping make off with more than $1 million in cash and jewelry during a violent armed robbery in Texas was arrested Tuesday in Palm Coast, according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies responded that evening to the area of Palm Coast Parkway and Interstate 95 after the sheriff’s office’s Real Time Crime Center pinged a black Chevrolet Tahoe with a Maryland tag tied to suspects in the Houston jewelry store robbery three days prior, a news release states.
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A vehicle matching the description was located in a parking lot off Kings Way, investigators said. The tag was seen to have been covered up as deputies otherwise observed two males loading groceries into the vehicle before it left the lot and ran a stop sign, according to the release.
While backup was on the way, deputies followed the vehicle until conducting a traffic stop in the 1000 block of Palm Coast Parkway NW, the sheriff’s office said. Asdrubal Rodriguez, 35, was one of two detained from the vehicle without incident, telling deputies he did not have a driver’s license as he was never issued one in the U.S. and didn’t have one from his home country of Cuba either, according to the release.
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Rodriguez in that moment faced only a charge of driving without a license and was arrested as such — that is, until the sheriff’s office’s Major Case Unit responded. The unit worked with detectives out of Houston to serve a search warrant on the vehicle which turned up $79,000 in cash and gold jewelry of an unknown value, the release states.
Rodriguez allegedly later confessed to committing the robbery at the Houston jewelry store, where he reportedly pistol-whipped and pepper-sprayed victims, the sheriff’s office said.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was contacted regarding both of the men and an ICE detainer was obtained for Rodriguez while the other person who was in the vehicle was released with no charges, deputies said.
Sheriff Rick Staly said Rodriguez told deputies he was visiting a friend before going to South Florida.
“We believe he is involved in a criminal organization that uses illegal foreign nationals in this country to commit these robberies,” Staly said.
Rodriguez currently faces charges of driving without a license and fugitive from justice, booking records show. He was taken to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility where he’s being held on $500 bond pending a warrant out of Houston regarding aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon, the sheriff’s office said.
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