Heist gang behind brazen Los Angeles daylight robberies of millions from armored trucks in a two-year crime wave busted

Gang executed string of daring daylight heists in Los Angeles where gang members held up armored trucks at gunpoint and got away with millions of dollars

Crew clad in ski masks and brandishing AR-15 assault weapons, targeted vehicles picking up or delivering bags of cash at banks, fast-food restaurants, markets and credit unions.

Several of the suspects had met each other while serving time in state prison, investigators said

Federal prosecutors last year charged half-brothers with gang affiliations described as masterminds involved in the heists

Brothers James Russell Davis, 34, a member of the West Boulevard Crips and Deneyvous Hobson, 36, who is affiliated the Black P Stones are key suspects feds said

Davis is a member of the West Boulevard Crips, while Hobson is affiliated the Black P Stones according to the warrant affidavit

Investigators linked Hobson and Davis to ex-con Jadie Lee Young Jr, 30, a member of the West Boulevard Crips, who was then found shot in the head by the road side before he could be arrested, on Dec 20, 2023

Young was linked to Zeff Rocco of the East Coast Crips who was killed on March 21, during a police raid – reaching for his dropped gun when cops tried to arrest him

The heavily armed thieves wore ski masks and, on occasion, “security” shirts. The gangsters used painter suits, assault rifles and zip ties for brazen armored car heists

There appears to be a break in the mystery around a string of well orchestrated daring daylight robberies in the Los Angeles area with a signature of style of the brazen thieves holding up armored trucks at gunpoint, getting away with millions of dollars leaving law enforcement scratching their heads
The heists which spread across the city since 2022, sophisticated, lightning-quick, lasting just seconds.
The crew would strike clad in ski masks and brandishing AR-15 assault weapons, targeting vehicles picking up or delivering bags of cash at banks, fast-food restaurants, markets and credit unions.
The armed thieves would force security guards to the ground at gunpoint, zip-tie them, before grabbing wads of bills from the armored vehicle and fleeing in a twinkle.
The mystery bandits robbers dubbed “Chesapeake Bandits”, have now been linked to the Crips and Black P Stone gangs of Los Angeles.

The typical modus operandi of the heavily armed thieves was to rob armored trucks picking up cash like this brinks security truck at the Silicon Valley Bank in Santa Clara, California in 2023

The agencies investigating the wave of robberies, LAPD and the FBI, believe the group planned the robberies from a home on Chesapeake Avenue in the West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles, earning their ‘Chesapeake Bandits’ moniker.
FBI assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles office, Donald Alway, describes how the criminals using multiple vehicles and personnel would surveil targeted locations in the lead up to the precision heists, adding that the getaway drivers would remain in their vehicles during the robberies.
“The defendants in this case and the other co-conspirators are heavily armed and pointed their weapons at the victims,” which in each case were security guards, US Attorney Martin Estrada said at a news conference at the FBI’s LA headquarters in Westwood last month.

This figure captured on surveillance camera is suspect to be a member of the heist crew. he is wanted for a series of well planned and executed armored car robberies between February 2022 and February 2023

Ex-con James Russell Davis, [photos], believed to be part of the “Chesapeake Bandits” allegedly responsible for a string of armed robberies in the Los Angeles area was charged along with his brother, Deneyvous Hobson

Law enforcement said that court records show that several of the suspects had met each other while serving time in state prison.
Believed to be operating with a six-man crew two key suspects in the heists, half-brothers Deneyvous Hobson, 36, and James Russell Davis, 34, were charged by federal prosecutors in 2023.
The brother both have gang affiliations according to the charging documents. Davis is a member of the West Boulevard Crips, while Hobson is affiliated the Black P Stones..
Another suspect, Jadie Lee Young Jr, 30, was later found dead in suspicious circumstances and a fourth, Zeff Rocco, was killed by police while fleeing a raid.
Despite the arrest and jailing of the suspected ringleaders, the group’s signature crime sprees continued.

The crew got away with bags of money in their lighting-quick operations like the case at a Bank of America branch in Inglewood, California on June 9, 2022.Surveillance cameras caught images of the suspects during an armed robbery

The crew’s robbery wave authorities believe kicked off in February 2022 when three of its members approached an armored car driver picking up cash from a Wescom Credit Union in Hawthorne and forced the guard to the ground at gunpoint according to an FBI Special affidavit that stated that the thieves grabbed bags of cash, checks as well as the guard’s weapon before fleeing in a white Honda Accord.
The robbers got away with $166,640, according to court records.
Over the next year, the crew held up armored car drivers outside a Bank of America branch in Inglewood, a 99 Cents Only Store on Crenshaw Boulevard and a check-cashing business at the intersection of La Brea Avenue and Adams Boulevard, according to the affidavit.

The heavily armed crew in their signature style would subdue and tie up guards and driver, grab bags of cash and vanish in seconds

In June 2023, a Brinks armored car pulled into the parking lot of a 7-Eleven at the intersection of Florence Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard. As he returned with the money, a man wearing a white jumpsuit stepped out of a white Lexus SUV holding a rifle, Detective Emily Delph of the LAPD Robbery-Homicide Division wrote in a search warrant affidavit.
He pushed the worker to the ground and took the money while a second suspect aimed a rifle on the driver inside the truck.
“Let’s go!” the getaway driver in the Lexus shouted at the men, “Hurry up!”, and they were gone in seconds
Less than three weeks later, the bandits held up another Brinks driver, picking up cash at a Taco Bell.
One of the robbers clad in a white painter’s suit trained an AR-15 at the driver forcing him to hand over his keys to another crew member. The robbers then cash sped off with the hijacked bullion truck, which was later found abandoned.

The bandits typically struck armored bullion vans and trucks on their rounds of deliveries and pick-ups from various banks and fast-food restaurants

In the final heist of record connected to the group, a Brinks driver was robbed while filling ATMs in South Los Angeles the morning of Oct. 16, 2023.
According Delph investigators also linked Hobson and Davis to a Jadie Lee Young Jr, a 30-year-old member of the West Boulevard Crips. He’d served 12 years in prison for assault and had been contacted by the pair during the robberies.
Delph wrote in a search warrant affidavit which phone records showed Young had also been near the site of some of the robberies when they occurred.
However, before he could be arrested Young’s body was found December 20 last year on the side of a road in Inglewood with a bullet wound to his head. His death is being investigated by the LAPD.
In her affidavit, Delph said she discovered Young had been communicating with another person during the robberies on a number registered to Zeff Rocco, an East Coast Crip who’d done prison time for carjacking.

FBI said one of the suspects Jadie Lee Young Jr, had been communicating with another person during the robberies on a number registered to Zeff Rocco, an East Coast Crips member

When cops arrived to to arrest Zeff Rocco he jumped from his third-floor apt, armed with an assault rifle, which he momentarily dropped the gun. as he tried went to reach for it, according to surveillance footage. Police repeatedly warned him to “let it go” before shooting him dead

Investigators found further evidence which linked him to the heists and on March 21 this year, a SWAT team gathered at a Reseda Boulevard apartment building to serve a search and arrest warrant on the suspect.
“Zeff Rocco, this is the LAPD!” an officer shouted, according to body camera footage released last week.
“Come out with your hands up and surrender immediately!”
LAPD said they also made contact with the suspect by phone and instructed him to come outside and surrender.
Moments later, Rocco jumped from his third-floor apartment armed with an assault rifle. He momentarily dropped the gun while trying to get away and went to reach for it, according to surveillance footage. Police repeatedly warned him to “let it go” before shooting him dead.
According to the LAPD, the rifle Rocco carried was a semiautomatic Ghost Gun, the department said in a statement.