Duo Faces Charges In $2M Luxury Watch Stealing Spree: Feds

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — Two men who were accused of stealing millions of dollars in luxury watches from jewelers across the New York metropolitan area are now facing a string of robbery charges, federal prosecutors said.

In a series of robberies dating back to December 2019, Victor Rivera and Johan Araujo nabbed luxury watches amounting to tens-of-thousands of dollars apiece from jewelers in New Jersey, Long Island, Brooklyn, and Queens — including Long Island City. In a couple of instances Rivera used a handgun during the robberies, according to prosecutors.

“In one of those robberies a victim was shot,” said U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss, alluding to a robbery last July, where Rivera and Araujo allegedly stole a $148,000 Richard Mille watch from a jeweler in Brooklyn, shooting a victim in the process.

On two other occasions the men worked together to steal over $400,000 worth of watches and jewelry, prosecutors charged.

The duo’s first robbery was on December 10, 2019, when they stole a watch and diamond necklace from a jeweler in Brooklyn, followed by an incident on February 16, 2020, when they nabbed a luxury watch from a jeweler in Jamaica Estates, Queens, according to prosecutors.

In total, the charges are in connection to a string of 11 robberies where more than $2 million worth of luxury goods were stolen — but Araujo only helped Rivera in several of those robberies, prosecutors said.

Rivera was charged in a separate case last year, and is currently facing life in prison for using a gun in the robberies, documents show.

In that case he was accused of carrying out a string of robberies dating back to October 2019, including stealing $375,000 worth of watches from jewelers in Long Island City, and robbing a jeweler in Rego Park, according to prosecutors. An unnamed co-conspirator was also involved in those robberies, documents show.

Araujo, who was arrested on July 23, faces four robbery charges amounting to a maximum sentence of 80 years in prison if convicted, prosecutors said.