MIAMI — An airline cargo handler and a pawn shop owner have been arrested in connection with the theft of $625,000 in gold bars from Miami International Airport, officials said on Friday.
Prosecutors charged Marco Cruz, a 47-year-old Miami man who works as a cargo clerk at the airport, with stealing a box of six gold bars last month that arrived as cargo on an American Airlines flight from Ecuador.
The cargo was unloaded but a box containing the gold vanished after apparently being loaded onto a motorized luggage cart.
When cargo workers noticed the box was missing, they alerted authorities.

Ramses Llufrio, a 38-year-old pawn shop owner, was charged with receiving the gold bars knowing they had been stolen, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami said in a statement. Llufrio purchased five gold bars from Cruz for $250,000, it said.
As part of its investigation into the heist, officials interviewed airline employees including Cruz, who initially denied any involvement.