Third person charged in 2015 Wilson County gold truck heist, reward offered for capture

A third person has been charged in connection with a major gold heist off Interstate 95 back in 2015.

Authorities are looking for 56-year-old Pedro Santamaria -- who is charged by indictment with conspiring to commit a Hobbs Act robbery and with conspiring to use and carry a firearm in furtherance of that robbery.

It happened in Wilson County in March 2015. Police said thieves made off with gold bars worth $4.8 million in a truck robbery on I-95.

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Officials said the armed robbers painstakingly prepared for the job, using high-tech gizmos including a GPS tracker and a remote-controlled pepper-spray launcher to subdue the drivers.

Almost a year after the robbery, the ringleader, 46-year-old Adalberto Perez, was arrested.

Perez was taken into custody in March 2016 at his home in Opa-Locka. Around the same time, one of his accomplices, Roberto Cabrera, was also arrested. The two were sentenced to 11 and 19.5 years in prison, respectively.

On Friday, federal prosecutors formally charged Santamaria.

The FBI is offering up to $10,000 for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

Authorities say Santamaria, Adalberto Perez and Roberto Cabrera caused noxious fumes to fill the cabin of the TransValue Inc. truck that was transporting the gold bars from Miami to Boston. Two of the men removed and bound the TransValue employees and then transferred the gold bars to their vehicle and fled.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.