HARTFORD, Conn. – A man who committed a string of outlet store break-ins that targeted watches in Connecticut and elsewhere will have to serve time in prison.
Forty-year-old Cuban national Alionis Perez pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and was sentenced Thursday to five years in federal prison.
Prosecutors say he led a group that in 2013 broke into Fossil and other outlet stores at night, stealing time pieces. They say he and his partners got away with more than $1.8 million in watches from burglaries in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, Florida and Pennsylvania. They say the gang also broke into a store in Maine but failed to get any merchandise.
Perez also pleaded guilty to a separate conspiracy involving thefts of cash and sunglasses in 2014 from stores in Kansas and Tennessee.
A judge has ordered Perez to pay restitution.
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