The man whose wife pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal $500,000 in gold from South Asian families in Northern Virginia has admitted his role in the thefts.
Dagoberto Soto-Ramirez, 27, of New York City, pleaded guilty on Tuesday in federal court in Alexandria.
Authorities say that he and his wife, along with a third co-conspirator, stole more than $500,000 in gold and other valuables from 37 homes in Fairfax and Loudoun counties.
The trio targeted South Asian families because they believed the families kept large amounts of gold in their homes, according to court records.
Soto-Ramirez’s wife, Melinda M. Soto, pleaded guilty on Friday.
Another alleged conspirator, Francisco Gray, 40, of New York City, has been indicted in the scheme but prosecutors say he is a fugitive.
In his plea agreement, Soto-Ramirez admitted that he helped find names and residences of potential victims, posed as a service man at the homes, and burglarized the homes in search of gold, jewelry and other valuables.
The trio then transported the stolen property to New York and sold it, authorities say.
During the burglaries, they used a police scanner to monitor the Fairfax and Loudoun county police frequencies.
As part of their plea agreements, the couple agreed to pay full restitution to the victims of their burglaries, which occurred between January and November 2009.
Soto had also agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and testify against her husband at trial, which had been scheduled for October.
Soto, Soto-Ramirez and Gray were indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiracy in July.
The federal indictment came after cases against them in Fairfax and Loudoun courts collapsed earlier this year.
Police found a list of addresses and police radio frequencies at an Alexandria motel where the accused thieves had stayed. But a judge threw out that evidence — and then most of the charges — when a detective testified that the evidence had been recovered more than a week after the arrests, after it had been moved to a motel storage room.
A Fairfax County jury convicted Soto-Ramirez in one of those burglaries after a witness identified him.
Soto and Soto-Ramirez are scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 3. Each could face up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.
