Story highlights

Cesar Yanez was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for his role in the heist

His wife and two others are also being prosecuted

Los Angeles CNN  — 

Cesar Yanez was convicted this summer of an armored-truck heist where he and his accomplices made off with a cool million.

On Thursday, cops recovered more than half of that. It was buried in the backyard of his Southern California home in Fontana, about 50 miles east of Los Angeles.

FBI agents dug up some $600,000 of carefully wrapped bills, said Ari DeKofsky, a spokeswoman for the agency.

In November 2014, authorities found about $85,000 at the same home.

Yanez was convicted of bank larceny and conspiracy in August. He was sentenced to nearly five years in prison.

Three other suspects in the case are in various stages of prosecution, including Leticia Yanez, Cesar’s wife.

The heist

Authorities say the scheme went down in June 2014 when Cesar Yanez and co-worker Aldo Esquivel Vega, who worked for security company Loomis, were transporting millions of dollars in cash to Bank of America locations in the area.

While on their route, they made a quick stop in a parking lot and placed $1,086,000 in a trash can for someone else to pick up later.