A crew of suspects believed to be part of a gang has been wreaking havoc in California over a two-month period and does not appear to care about possibly getting caught.
The crew is accused of using sledgehammers, bolt cutters, and crowbars to break into cigarette shops in the Bay Area and swipe nearly $1 million worth of smokes. They apparently targeted one store three times, the Mercury News reported Monday.
An image from surveillance footage shows what appears to be three of the suspects, wearing hoodies and ski masks, inside a business:
The Mercury News article continued:
The crew has been linked to at least 34 burglaries and an estimated loss of $970,000 within a two-month span. Along the way, they successfully evaded pursuing officers time and time again, made off with $200,000 from a Chanel store in Southern California and even allegedly recorded a rap music video featuring a stolen Jeep that had been at a half-dozen burglaries, according to authorities.
Police identified three suspects, who they claim are part of an Oakland-based gang with a name to match the burglary crew’s audacious modus operandi: “F— Everyone.” The gang is a subset of a larger group known as ENT, which has been linked to numerous shootings around the East Bay, including a lengthy rivalry with the Oakland-based Case Gang.
Three of the suspects are facing charges regarding incidents that happened during the two-month long spree, and police have caught one of them. Officials consider the remaining two fugitives.
Law enforcement says the crew is connected to burglaries in several areas including Oakland and San Diego. In Oakland, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said recently he is having hundreds of surveillance cameras installed to combat criminal activity that is plaguing the area, Breitbart News reported.
“The city of roughly 400,000 across the bay from San Francisco has seen crime continue to rise in the past 12 months with no sign of it easing anytime soon,” Breitbart News said.
In November, Newsom claimed crime in his state had reached “50-year lows” despite the fact that California was experiencing crime rates higher than the national average.
However, some people across the state appear to be fighting back against the criminal activity threatening their lives and businesses, as evidenced when 7-Eleven workers in Stockton thrashed a man who allegedly tried to steal cigarettes from their store, Breitbart News reported in August.
Video footage shows the incident:
Per the recent Mercury News article, the one suspect in custody is identified as Robert Lee Johnson, 26.
“Authorities allege that he was wearing a police GPS ankle monitor at the time of the burglaries, as a condition of parole for a prior home invasion robbery conviction,” the outlet reported. “They also allege that he recorded and posted a music video where he’s sitting on and in a Jeep that was linked to several of the crimes.”