Three Philly men stole $2 million in cash from a Brinks truck in Port Richmond, feds say
One of the accused robbers was a Brinks employee who’d previously served as the driver of the truck he targeted.
Three Philadelphia men were charged with robbery and related offenses for stealing $2 million in cash from an armored Brinks truck in Port Richmond in June, federal authorities said Wednesday.
One of the alleged culprits, Trayvine Jackson, was a Brinks employee who previously served as the driver of the truck he targeted, court documents said. Just days before the crime, Jackson had been suspended because Brinks officials were investigating whether he had been involved in two earlier thefts.
Those incidents — in which about $16,000 went missing — paled in comparison to the multimillion-dollar haul that prosecutors say Jackson scored on June 21 while conspiring with two other people: Daishaun Hughes-Murchison and Brian Wallace, who are accused of providing getaway cars.
In Wallace’s case, prosecutors said, he rented a car from Enterprise, where he was an employee, and returned it four hours after the heist.
As authorities investigated, they eventually searched Jackson’s home, where they found more than $1 million in cash, paper money bands used to package bills, and two long guns similar to those pointed at the Brinks driver during the heist, court documents said.
Authorities also used surveillance video and cell phone records to identify the three men as suspects, officials said.
Wayne Jacobs, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia field office, said in an interview Wednesday that nearly all of the cash had been recovered, and that agents had also identified some jewelry, vehicles, and property that the men bought with the money.
“To those who would engage in similar behavior: Your time will come,” Jacobs said. “The folks here are committed to holding [people] accountable.”
Attorneys for the three men either declined to comment or did not immediately respond to inquiries about the case.
The heist began around 8 a.m., when the driver of a Brinks truck stopped near the Home Depot store on the 2500 block of Castor Avenue as part of his regular route and began walking down an alley behind the store, court documents said.
Jackson and another man — authorities did not say who — then approached the driver with AR-style rifles, the documents said, forced him to the ground, took his Brinks-issued gun, and stole his keys.
Jackson went into the truck and stole the cash, the documents said, then fled with the other assailant in Wallace’s rental car.
Hours later, court documents said, Wallace returned that vehicle, then walked to Hughes-Murchison’s car, where he got into a passenger seat and was driven away.
All three men were arrested earlier this month. A federal judge this week ordered Jackson to be held in custody until trial. Detention hearings are scheduled for Hughes-Murchison and Wallace in the coming days.
The June heist was one of several armored truck thefts that occurred in quick succession earlier this summer. And just this week, police said two men armed with rifles stole $700,000 from an armored truck in Elkins Park.
Jacobs, the FBI official, said authorities were continuing to investigate each episode to see if there are any links between them.