Brady jerseys returned to NE

BOSTON — Tom Brady’s stolen Super Bowl jerseys are back with the Patriots.

The jerseys worn by Brady during this year’s Super Bowl and the 2015 Super Bowl were returned to Gillette Stadium on Thursday, the FBI announced.

Brady’s 2017 jersey went missing from the Patriots’ locker room after the team’s win over the Falcons on Feb. 5, touching off an investigation stretching from Boston to the Mexican border Mexican authorities searched the property of Mexican media executive Martin Mauricio Ortega, where they found the jersey, along with a Brady jersey that disappeared after the 2015 Super Bowl. A Denver Broncos helmet also was found.

Ortega has not been charged in the case and has not commented. An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment on the investigation.

In a statement Thursday, Patriots owner Robert Kraft said he looks forward to giving the jerseys to Brady when he returns to New England.

Kraft thanked the FBI, Mexican authorities and other law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation.

“It is another example of the importance of teamwork and what can be accomplished when everyone works together,” Kraft said.

The FBI released a photo of the jerseys being held by Harold Shaw, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston Division, and Col. Richard McKeon of the Massachusetts State Place. Kraft is standing between the two jerseys and behind the Patriots’ five Super Bowl trophies.

“We know how much this means to the Patriots and football fans everywhere, and we are honored to be able to bring these jerseys back to Foxboro,” Shaw said.

Colleagues of Ortega said he went to this year’s Super Bowl in Houston as a working journalist but spent the week collecting selfies and autographs from football players. Ortega quit his job as director of the tabloid La Prensa earlier on March 14, two days after Brady’s jerseys were found.