Humble resident gets four years for his part in armored car robbery

HOUSTON, TX — A former officer with the Houston Police Department was recently sentenced to four years in federal prison for lying to investigators about his role in a 2013 armored car heist that netted the perps over $4 million.

Joel Quezada, 33, of Humble, pleaded guilty in the federal court on Jan. 11, 2016 to misleading FBI agents about accepting a bribe to monitor his police radio and act as a look out while four men pulled a stick-up job on a Loomis armored car outside of the University of Houston Student Center, according to court records.

On Dec. 6, 2013, the day of the robbery, the men — Dezmond Edwards, Ron Richards, James V. Johnson and Allen B. Roundtree— were operating on inside information. Edwards, a Loomis employee, told the crew which truck to hit and where to hit it.

When the targeted truck rolled up to the student center, the crew was ready. One guy went in to do the deed, while everybody else hung back, according to court records.

The point man waited until one of the guards went to refill an ATM before pulling his pistol and dragging the pregnant driver — who kept the door unlocked — out of the truck at gunpoint.

The guard refilling the ATM saw what was going down and fired his service weapon at the thief, but the shot missed.
The thief took off with the truck and the $4 million in the back. He didn’t take the truck very far; just across the street from the UH campus the crew switched the cash into two get-away cars, according to the FBI.

After the heist the men spent some of the money on new cars, appliances and jewelry — but when the feds caught up with them about $3 million was still missing.

At the time of the robbery, Quezada was a six year veteran of the Houston Police Department and was working in traffic enforcement.

A few months before the armored car caper, Quezada had drawn criticism from his supervisors and analysts at Houston’s crime lab for mishandling evidence in a drunken driving case, according to a Texas Forensic Science Commission report.

Court records don’t divulge how much Quezada got paid to act as lookout or if he got a cut of the job.

alex.wukman@patch.com

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