Via Tom
Three members of a robbery gang called the Cartier crew that engaged in shootouts in broad daylight were convicted Thursday of armed robbery and drug trafficking charges in federal district court, authorities said.
Jose Reyes, 39, Albert Espinal, 33, and Johann Brito, 32, all of Lawrenceville, were convicted on the two offenses and for using a firearm in connection with those offenses, according to U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates.
She said the Cartier crew engaged in at least two shootouts in broad daylight -- one at a busy intersection in Lawrenceville, and another in a quiet subdivision in Duluth.
"The defendants and their robbery crew shot, stabbed, tortured, kidnapped and restrained their victims, whom they suspected" to be drug dealers, Yates said in a news release. She said the crew committed robberies in Georgia, New York and North Carolina.
“These defendants not only targeted drug dealers, in at least two instances they mistakenly stabbed and tortured innocent victims. And their willingness to break into homes and engage in high-speed chases with police and public shootouts endangered the lives of all our residents,” Yates said.
According to Yates and other information presented in court, members of the group came to Georgia in 2008 and 2009 from New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island to commit robberies.
She said all three defendants and other members of the group were either born in the Dominican Republic or have close ties to that nation.
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