FBI: Serial Armed Robber Gets Substantial Prison Term

The FBI website offers a piece on a serial armed robber.

It was a highly effective combination of local and federal resources. A 38-year-old man was identified by local police as the suspect in a series of frightening armed robberies of businesses in the Birmingham, Alabama area, one of which ended with a customer getting shot. Local authorities contacted the FBI’s Birmingham Field Office with a request for assistance—they wanted to see if their suspect could be charged under the federal Hobbs Act, taking advantage of its harsher penalties

The multi-agency investigation that followed led to this particular suspect—Jamey Lee Matthews—pleading guilty to four counts of robbery under the Hobbs Act. And just last month, he received a 25-year federal prison term. The judge also ordered him to pay $208,000 in restitution to the man he shot and to the stores he robbed.

The series of robberies Matthews was charged with took place during October 2012, and among the businesses he robbed were a convenience store, a dollar store, a supermarket, a pharmacy, and a gas station. His first job was the convenience store, which he entered just after 4 a.m. on October 11, 2012, with a shotgun. He threatened the female clerk, who complied with his order to open the register. Subsequent robberies were similar—he would enter the store with a firearm, often wore a Halloween mask, threatened employees and customers, and demanded money.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2015/june/serial-armed-robber-gets-substantial-prison-term/serial-armed-robber-gets-substantial-prison-term?utm_campaign=email-Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=fbi-top-stories&utm_content=436479 

FBI: Joint Effort Takes Down Detroit-Based "Smash & Grab" Robbery Group

The FBI web site reports on their take down of a robbery group.

Today, the FBI and its partners announced three separate indictments filed during the past month against 17 individuals from the metropolitan Detroit area who are believed to be responsible for a number of “smash and grab” robberies of jewelry stories in a half-dozen states. The charges, filed in federal court in the Eastern District of Michigan, involved violations of the Hobbs Act, which makes it a crime to obstruct, delay, or affect interstate commerce by robbery.

The indictments follow a series of investigations around the nation by various local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies involving approximately 40 smash and grab jewelry store robberies. Authorities also announced they are looking for the public’s help in identifying 16 other individuals believed to be connected to additional smash and grab robberies (see Seeking Information poster below).

Smash and grab robberies are aptly named—they involve perpetrators who enter a jewelry store and, in front of store employees and customers alike, threateningly whip out tools like sledgehammers, smash those hammers through the glass displays, and grab expensive pieces of jewelry before taking off, stunning and frightening anyone who witnesses their actions. In addition to the constant threat of violence from these criminals, there have been instances of innocent bystanders actually getting hurt during these robberies.

You can read the rest of the report via the below link:

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2015/february/joint-effort-takes-down-detroit-based-robbery-group/joint-effort-takes-down-detroit-based-robbery-group?utm_campaign=email-Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_source=fbi-top-stories&utm_content=408332