Car robber pleads guilty in Albany

ALBANY — A Florida-based member of a nationwide theft ring known as the “Felony Lane Gang” that broke into cars in the Capital Region and ripped off victims’ bank cards, checks and identifications pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Thursday to causing losses to victims of between $40,000 and $95,000.

Randall Taylor, 37, of Fort Lauderdale, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft before U.S. District Judge Mae D’agostino in Albany.

Taylor, known as “Guwop” and “Gucci,” admitted that between 2019 and August 2020, he and others engaged in “smash-and-grab” thefts in which they shattered windows of vehicles, stole debit and credit cards, checkbooks and photo identifications, and used the stolen items to withdraw money from banks.

Taylor, who will be sentenced in October, was one of nine defendants indicted in the case, including two from the Capital Region. The crew struck locations that included Albany and Onondaga counties, both within the 32-county Northern District of New York.

In his plea agreement, Taylor admitted that he committed thefts throughout the country and regularly possessed stolen identification cards and checks to defraud the banks. When Taylor was arrested in Boone County, Illinois, on Feb. 21, 2019, he was carrying a tool to punch through windows, other burglary tools, the stolen identification and debit card of a female victim, and documents for a bank account that had been fraudulently opened in the woman’s name days earlier, court papers show.

Taylor admitted that on June 22, 2020, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he directed a person to cash a stolen check for $4,000 with the forged signature of a smash-and-grab vehicle victim. The loss amount foreseeable to Taylor was more than $40,000 and not more than $95,000, the plea agreement said. It said Taylor personally obtained $11,240 in unrecovered proceeds from banks.

The case involved the office of U.S. Attorney Carla Freedman; the FBI, State Police, and police and prosecutors from around the Capital Region and other parts of New York state, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Georgia, Connecticut, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Utah and New Hampshire.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew Mccrobie, Michael Perry and Paul Tuck are prosecuting the case.