Three held in $436k robbery of cannabis courier
two men suspected of robbing a courier carrying $436,200 in cash from cannabis dispensaries, and their alleged getaway driver, were arrested Wednesday after federal agents executed search warrants at their homes in bridgewater, brockton, and Raynham, court records show.
Steven Madison, 38, Christopher White, 37, and Quentin McDonald, 35, were charged with robbery interfering with interstate commerce, conspiracy, and arson of property used in or affecting interstate commerce, according to a 20-page criminal complaint filed Wednesday in uS District Court. Madison and White also were charged as felons in possession of firearms.
Madison’s bridgewater neighbors were jolted awake at about 6:30 a.m. by the flashbang sound of federal agents announcing their arrival Wednesday, according to published reports. About 30 minutes later, bridgewater police posted on social media that the investigation was centered around the beebe Road area and there was no danger to the public.
All three men appeared in uS District Court in boston
Wednesday and were ordered held pending a detention hearing set for May 13, according to court records. All three men were declared indigent and were assigned court-appointed lawyers.
Investigators believe the feb. 19 armed robbery of a courier for Plymouth Armor Group at the bayCoast bank in Swansea was an inside job, court records show. (Plymouth Armor advertises as the state’s “leading secure cash & cannabis transporter,” according to court filings.)
It was President’s Day and the bank was closed. two of the men allegedly scoped out the bank parking lot, AtM, and night-deposit bin within two hours of the 12:36 p.m. robbery, and then parked the u-Haul van they were driving in a parking lot next door and waited, the complaint said.
the facts show that “the suspects knew” the courier would arrive to make “a significant cash deposit” on Presidents’ Day, Special Agent eric Mercer, of the federal bureau of Alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and explosives, wrote in the complaint.
the investigation also asserted that Madison had been communicating with an employee at one of the dispensaries, referred to as “Person A” in court filings. the day after the robbery, they spoke four times for a total of more than 11 minutes. Prior to the robbery, going back to December, cellphone records showed that they spoke seven times, the complaint said.
“I have not determined the nature of the connection between the dispensary employee and Madison, but based on my training and experience and the facts of this case, it is suspicious that a dispensary employee was speaking with one of the suspects a few weeks ahead of ... and the day immediately after the robbery,” Mercer wrote.
According to the complaint, the courier had made stops at dispensaries in Provincetown, Wellfleet, Plymouth, Middleborough, and fall River.
His last stop and biggest pick up, $373,000, was at Cosmopolitan Dispensary in fall River, records show.
the two alleged robbers were masked and armed when they approached the courier after he parked his ford explorer under an awning next to the overnight deposit bin. they allegedly restrained his wrists with zip ties, sprayed pepper spray in his face, took the bags of cash, and fled in the u-Haul, the complaint said.
About a mile away, the men allegedly set fire to the u-Haul on Reed Road. A witness saw two men remove items from the van and get into a Jeep Grand Cherokee. the Jeep nearly hit the witness as it sped away, according to the complaint.
Investigators pieced the case together through surveillance video and RMV records, and by cross-referencing devices connecting to cell towers in proximity to the crimes before and after the robbery.
Investigators believe Madison and White, of Raynham, were the robbers, and McDonald, of brockton, drove the Jeep, court filings show.
the u-Haul they discovered had been stolen from a business in Abington early on the day of the robbery. the Jeep was registered to McDonald’s sister in brockton. Madison and McDonald had been codefendants in an armed home invasion more than a decade ago, Mercer wrote in the complaint.
Investigators also discovered that White had owed $14,200 in back rent but paid $5,700 in cash about four hours after the alleged robbery. ten days later he paid the balance, the complaint said.
McDonald’s sister meanwhile traded in a 2013 lexus for a Range Rover and paid a $5,000 cash deposit five days after the robbery, according to the complaint.
While serving the search warrants, investigators found clothing the alleged robbers had worn, cellphones connected to the investigation, two black masks, zip ties, a $47,000 Rolex watch, an estimated $11,000 cash, two pistols, and cocaine, court records show.
The investigation asserted that one of the suspects had ndbeen communicating with an employee at one of the dispensaries.