Background: The Seybold jewelry building in Miami (Google Maps). Insets, clockwise from top left: Zacary Biggs, Aaron Hammond, Tre’von Neal and Evan Puckett (Broward County Sheriff’s Office).
FBI agents in Florida busted up an alleged kidnapping plot by a group of “goons” who feds say planned to take a Miami jeweler captive until he forked over his $2 million in cryptocurrency.
Evan Puckett, 18, Tre’von Anthony Neal, 20, Zacary Briggs, 22, and Aaron Hammond, 21, are charged with kidnapping conspiracy, attempted kidnapping, Hobbs Act Robbery Conspiracy and Attempted Hobbs Act Extortion.
A confidential source tipped off the feds about the plan on Jan. 6. According to a probable cause arrest affidavit, the source said a person he referred to as “Jack” was assembling a group of “goons” to kidnap a jeweler who worked at the Seybold building in downtown Miami. The victim was trying to exchange the crypto for cash.
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Feds say the informant showed agents the group chat dubbed “Play,” which is often code used by criminals planning an illegal plot. One of the men allegedly texted
“[w]hat’s good guys … Big money easy.” Jack then replied “let’s talk ab setting it up.” The group then proceeded to talk about the vehicle they would use and the type of weapons they would need. One of the men said they would need about $3,500 up front to buy all the supplies they would need.
But the plan hit a snag when one of the now-busted kidnappers said that price would be too high. He did offer to “float the ‘rental car money,”” the affidavit said. Eventually, two of the men said they would supply the seed money, per the feds.
The plan was to hold the victim captive “until we get paid.” But they emphasized that they didn’t want to hurt the victim, feds wrote. The suspects also asked the confidential informant to supply the vehicle they would use. He did so — but it was delivered by an undercover agent and the vehicle was outfitted with cameras, a tracker and listening devices, according to the FBI. Agents also were tracking Puckett’s and Neal’s phones via GPS, the affidavit said.
One of the suspects allegedly said “one knock” and “one good bop” would do enough to incapacitate the victim without doing any “brain damage.”
