A gang of ‘pedophile hunters’ extorted their targets to buy guns, fund vacations, and rent luxury cars, Montco DA says

Caught up in the wave of vigilante “pedophile hunters,” a group of Philadelphia men lured their online targets to parking lots in the city, then attacked and blackmailed them for money, investigators said Friday.

But the group took it a step further: They leveraged the stolen money into a sprawling criminal enterprise, using it to buy guns, fund vacations in Miami and Mexico, and rent luxury cars and yachts, court documents show.

They named themselves “Always Running Plays,” street slang for robbing people, and ordered custom jewelry and inked tattoos on their skin with the group’s logo.

The gang’s six members operated their kidnapping and blackmail ring “to finance a lifestyle that cannot be supported through legitimately obtained and documented income,” investigators in Montgomery County said.

And there was no evidence that the group’s targets had assaulted or harmed children, despite their claims, according to court records.

ARP’s alleged ringleader, Daquine Owens, and his most frequent collaborators are now in custody, charged with racketeering, robbery, kidnapping, gun violations, and related crimes.

Owens, 29; his wife, Ajahnae, 31; and his mother, Najwa Owens, 46; face charges alongside Aysir Bond, 23; and Gregory Johnson, 25; all of Philadelphia, as well as Keith Cirwithen-Howell, 29, of Dover, Del., Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said.

All remained in custody, unable to post bail, except for Najwa Owens, who was freed after posting $2,500, and Bond, for whom investigators have issued an arrest warrant.

Owens’ attorney, Robert Gamburg, did not respond to a request for comment. It was unclear if the five other suspects had hired attorneys to represent them.

Investigators say ARP came under investigation in June, when Daquine Owens, Bond, and Cirwithen-Howell posed as police officers to kidnap and extort a man outside of a LongHorn Steakhouse in Lower Merion.

The group had been messaging the man while posing as a 17-year-old girl, and arranged to meet him for a date at the steakhouse, according to the affidavit of probable cause for their arrests.

At the restaurant, they approached the man while carrying guns and wearing tactical vests and identified themselves as members of the “8th Precinct Special Task Force,” the document said. They told the man they knew he was a pedophile, said he was under arrest, placed him in handcuffs and forced him into their vehicle, according to the affidavit.

The group drove the man around, then stopped at the Belmont Plateau, where they offered to free him and keep quiet about his alleged crimes in exchange for money, the document said.

The man agreed and withdrew money from a Wawa ATM at their direction, and made several bank transfers to accounts owned by Najwa Owens and another alleged ARP member, the affidavit said.

All told, they stole more than $50,000 from the man, authorities said.

Daquine Owens, after his arrest, told investigators it was the victim’s idea to pay them to keep them quiet about his alleged pedophilia, the affidavit said.

But investigators said an analysis of social media accounts and cellphones belonging to the ARP members found they had followed this pattern of extortion with at least two other victims since 2021.

In one case, they said, the group extorted an alleged pedophile for years, stealing more than $100,000 from him that bankrolled their vacations and other lavish expenses.

Using the stolen money, the group directed Ajahnae Owens to purchase multiple guns for them since she had no criminal record.

Her husband, who could not legally possess guns because of felony convictions for drug offenses and robbery, often posed with the guns on social media, including one firearm that police say she falsely reported stolen while renting an Airbnb in Florida.