Foreign national pleads guilty to Southern California armed robbery spree

One of two men indicted in an armed robbery spree at convenience stores around Southern California pleaded guilty on Tuesday, Dec. 30.

Jesus Soto-Parada, 27, had been deported to El Salvador during the 2024 robbery spree, but later returned to the country and was found living in South Los Angeles, federal prosecutors said.

He entered a plea to one count of conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery and seven counts of interference with commerce by robbery, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Sentencing was set for April 15.

Soto-Parada was arrested in June 2024 with co-defendant Daniel Pavon, 21, a Honduran foreign national living in Gardena, who is scheduled for trial on Jan. 27 in Los Angeles federal court.

The robbers wore surgical masks, demanding cash at gunpoint while others acted as lookouts, prosecutors said.

The heists took place between January and June of 2024, and included convenience stores in Buena Park, Cypress, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Pomona, Newport Beach, Agoura Hills and Gardena, prosecutors said.

A total of $13,950 in cash and $7,415 in store goods were stolen, court papers show.

Following the robbery of a 7-Eleven store in Gardena, law enforcement located the suspects and conducted a traffic stop, resulting in the arrest of Soto-Parada and Pavon. During the search, officers reportedly discovered cash, a box of blue medical face masks, a tracking device, a black replica semi-automatic handgun, and two long-sleeved black hooded sweatshirts.

Shortly afterward, a clerk at the Gardena store was brought to the scene and identified Soto-Parada and Pavon as the individuals who committed the robbery, noting they were wearing the hooded sweatshirts during the heist, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.