Federal prosecutors have unsealed charges against two men accused in a string of ATM robberies resulting in the theft of at least $8 million since early 2023.
Thomas Alphonso Hughes, of District Heights, MD, and Jenarro Raymond Hewett were both arrested in D.C. last week on initial charges of conspiracy to interfere with interstate commerce by robbery. Hewett appeared in court last week and conceded to detention. On Tuesday, a federal magistrate judge granted a request from the government to hold Hughes without bond as well.
According to a detention memo, federal prosecutors allege both men were part of a conspiracy that targeted ATM machines throughout the DMV. The group allegedly used Jaws of Life, gas-powered saws, sledgehammers and other tools to break open ATMs – primarily located inside 7-Eleven stores – and steal as much as $8 million.
In the memo, prosecutors laid out how the group worked. They entered 7-Eleven locations late at night wearing masks and gloves and quickly spread out, with some members of the group working to subdue employees and destroy internal surveillance systems while others worked on breaking into the ATMs. The suspects used radios to communicate, rather than cellphones, and would change the license plates on the vehicles they used before or after the robberies. The group frequently hit multiple locations a night, each in quick succession.
Both men were arrested on July 24. That same day, prosecutors said, the group hit at least two locations in Virginia and one in Maryland. One of the robberies occurred shortly after 1 a.m. at the 7-Eleven store located at 650 University Boulevard East in Silver Spring.
Prosecutors said the group often brandished firearms to corral employees into the back of a story while they committed the robberies. According to the detention memo, a search of Hughes’ home and storage units on the day of his arrest turned up eight weapons, including three rifles.
WUSA9 reported in January about a string of ATM robberies at 7-Eleven stores in Prince George’s County and D.C. that also involved the use of Jaws of Life tools. A witness to one of those robberies at the 7-Eleven in the 5500 block of South Dakota Avenue NE told police the suspects used radios and earpieces and a hydraulic tool to open the ATM. Police told WUSA9 the group was suspected in another ATM robbery that same evening in Hyattsville, which was linked by the Prince George’s County Police Department to other robberies in the area a week prior.
In March, Prince George’s Co. police arrested 31-year-old Stefon Janey, of Upper Marlboro, on more than 40 charges connected to at least eight robberies at multiple 7-Eleven stores in the county. In each robbery, the suspects used Jaws of Life to break into the stores’ ATMs. Janey, who was charged in Prince George’s County Circuit Court, is not mentioned in any documents in Hughes’ and Hewett’s case.
Although the robberies involved similar methods, documents available in Hughes’ and Hewett’s case did not provide specific details about their alleged involvement in any incidents prior to the day of their arrest. WUSA9 reported in January that at least two groups appeared to be conducting similar robberies. A robbery on the 7-Eleven store at the intersection of Hamilton Street and 38th Avenue in Hyattsville that month resulted in the would-be thieves leaving with nothing – because the ATM had already been hit by a separate crew a few days prior.
Court documents in Hughes’ and Hewett’s case indicated investigators believed there were additional co-conspirators and further arrests were possible.