My experience is that most criminals are dumb and their crimes unsophisticated. (Or maybe those are the only ones I caught, and I’m the dumb one!)
That certainly wasn’t the case with this conspiracy in Miami, and the investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that caught these would-be kidnappers is one of the best I’ve seen in a long time.
It began when drone video over a swanky house in Miami came to the attention of police. They contacted the homeowner and learned he was successful in “crypto.” They also learned he’d received suspicious phone calls, suggesting someone was trying gain access to his accounts.
They cross-referenced the date and time of the drone video with surveillance video and LPR data from the neighborhood to identify a vehicle that seemed connected. They found video that captured the face of a passenger in the vehicle, and used facial recognition to confirm he was a local gang member. Then they identified his phone number and obtained cell-site location information (CSLI) for his phone.
(I’ve written about the value of CSLI before, here, here, and here.)
Using all that info, they found several other instances where the vehicle seemed to be “casing” the victim’s home. They also used it to identify two co-conspirators, including the drone pilot.
Separately, police intercepted a package from China containing illegal “jammers.” (I’ve written about jammers before.) Police installed surreptitious trackers in the jammers and then delivered them. The trackers showed that the jammers were subsequently moved to another house where the suspicious vehicle was.
Speaking of trackers, police found one hidden on the victim’s car; the suspects were tracking his movements.
At this point, you might wonder about the aim of the conspiracy. Police believed it was to kidnap and rob the victim.
Violent crimes like robberies or home invasions targeting crypto owners is a new phenomenon but is on the rise. (I wouldn’t even know what to do with the “crypto” info once I got it, reinforcing my worry that I might be the dumb one.)
Police drove the victim’s car (with the suspect’s tracker still on it) and sure enough the criminals came after it. The cops nabbed them and seized a gun from their car.
They charged them with 18 U.S.C. §
2261A (stalking) and 924(c) (carrying a firearm during a crime of violence, the underlying stalking).
I’ve seen these statutes used together more often lately, most notably against Luigi Mangione and the Minnesota lawmaker assassin.
This is really incredible work!
Once again, a tip of the hat to Seamus Hughes and Courtwatch.News. You can read the complaint here.
(And if all this seems just a little too good, I suspect an informant was involved. See my post about “wall stops” here. Either way, still great casework.)