Mike, that argument is just too convenient a means of rationalizing why the locations of the alleged hidden Arizona Jesuit caches are unidentified today. I don't buy it because it requires a major tactical failure on the part of the Jesuits, which is completely out of character for them.
Maybe because I just spent a month in parts of Italy, eastern Sicily and Malta examining the genius of Renaissance-era scientists, artists, explorers, military tacticians, religio, shipbuilders, architects, arms manufacturers, etc. This strengthened my belief that these people were clearly the capable equals of our best intellectuals today, even without electronic technology. Not to mention the Greeks, Phoenicians and Romans, but let's stick to the activities of the New World Jesuits, particularly in today's Arizona.
I can't believe for a minute that the Jesuits, arguably the elite of the elite, would accumulate these alleged precious metals caches, then be taken off-guard by the Expulsion and ultimately "lose" the secrets of where the alleged loot was hidden. This is absurd. For me, the more logical explanations of the tales include at least three options: 1) the caches, if they existed, have already been recovered by the Jesuits ; 2) the caches, if they existed, are still hidden and under the Jesuits' control; 3) there were no such major caches in Arizona. IMO, your time is better spent with these ideas than the "dog ate my homework" one.