Feds charge 6 men in connection with carjacking ring tied to murders, shipping stolen cars to Africa
Charges against at least three of the men are eligible for a rare federal death sentence. Prosecutors have not yet said whether they intend to seek it.
Federal authorities charged six men with being part of a carjacking ring responsible for dozens of car thefts and at least two slayings — including that of a 60-year-old man visiting his mother.
The 60-count federal indictment, which was unsealed Thursday, lays out a litany of charges against three of the men — Mikal McCracken, 22; Amin Muse, 22; Aleem Abdul-Hakim, 21 ― including counts of carjacking, firearms offenses, and murder.
That last count means all three could face a rare federal death sentence should they be convicted. Prosecutors have not yet indicated whether they intend to pursue that punishment, a decision that requires approval from Justice Department officials in Washington.
A fourth man — Dean Fosque, 26 — was also charged with several carjacking and firearms offenses, the most serious of which could send him to prison for up to 25 years.
The case comes nearly a year after District Attorney Larry Krasner announced state charges against a fifth man — Jonathan Akubu, 29 — for many of the same incidents, including the murders, at the center of Thursday’s indictment.
Both Akubu and a sixth man, Eniamaj Lee, have also been federally charged, prosecutors said in court filings Thursday, but the cases against those men remain under court seal.
But the federal indictment unsealed Thursday against the others offers new details on what investigators describe as the group’s months-long reign of violence in Philadelphia and its suburbs between late 2021 and early 2022.
According to the indictment, the group targeted many of the vehicles they stole with the intent to ship them overseas to sellers in Africa, who were aware they were buying stolen cars from the U.S. Armed with guns, the members stole people’s cars by threatening to hurt or kill them, sometimes multiple times in a day and several days in a row, prosecutors said. The men would allegedly ransack the vehicles and drive them to other states and in some cases ship them to Niger.
In one case, detailed in the indictment, their scheme turned deadly.
Prosecutors said McCracken, Muse, Abdul-Hakim, and Akubu fatally shot George Briscella while attempting to steal his Toyota RAV4 on Feb. 6, 2022, outside of his mother’s house on the 2100 block of Afton Street in Rhawnhurst. Briscella, 60, was on the way to use his mother’s printer when he was ambushed, shot in the stomach, and left to die, authorities said at the time.
Thursday’s indictment also accuses three of the same men — Akubu, McCracken, and Muse — of committing another murder six days later to prevent the victim from cooperating with authorities investigating Briscella’s death.
Prosecutors say the trio executed Aiah Gbessay, shooting him three times in the head, on the 8100 block of Grovers Avenue in Eastwick before fleeing in Gbessay’s van. Police later found it engulfed in flames three blocks away.
Federal authorities did not spell out Thursday what information they believe Gbessay might have had on Briscella’s earlier slaying to share with police. But police sources have previously told The Inquirer that Akubu and Gbessay, who ran a car locksmith business in Southwest Philadelphia, knew each other and cell phone records indicate they were in contact minutes before Gbessay’s death.
Like Akubu, all four of the men charged in the indictment unsealed Thursday have remained in custody since their arrests last year on state charges related to their alleged carjacking scheme. The District Attorney’s Office withdrew those charges earlier this month, after federal prosecutors secured their indictment.
Attorneys for McCracken and Fosque could not be reached for comment Thursday. It was not clear whether Lee, whose case remains under seal, had retained an attorney.
William Brennan, an attorney for Abdul-Hakim, declined to comment on the specific crimes of which his client is accused.
“It’s important to remember that an indictment is nothing more than a charging document,” he said. “My client, like all Americans, is innocent until proven guilty.”
Thomas Kenny, Muse’s attorney, declined to comment on the allegations, other than to say the charges were “very serious” and that Muse was taking them very seriously.