A man and woman suspected of robbing a couple in the Chumash Casino parking structure early Christmas morning were arrested Tuesday and taken into custody at the Riverside County Jail.
The suspects — Alfredo Cantu, 30, of Pico Rivera and Jennifer Alvarez, 32, of Temecula — reportedly “worked together to lure a male victim to his parked vehicle and then rob him,” as stated in a Sheriff’s Office press release. The victim was accompanied by a woman “who was inside the casino when the crime occurred,” said Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Kelly Hoover. The two suspects allegedly stole the woman’s purse from the man’s car and fled the area in a rental car.
Sheriff’s detectives learned Cantu and Alvarez were staying at a Riverside County Motel 6 in Temecula. Santa Barbara Sheriff’s detectives and Riverside deputies arrested the pair — under investigation for similar robberies at other southern California casinos — at the motel. They were booked into Riverside County Jail on $1-million bail each and transported to Santa Barbara County Jail on Thursday. Cantu and Alvarez will be arraigned Monday on alleged first-degree robbery and criminal conspiracy charges, said Hoover.