Four D.C. men have been federally charged with carjacking 33 vehicles in the District and Maryland during a six-month stretch, including one case which turned deadly, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Friday.
A 49-page federal indictment details what investigators believe was a complex and robust carjacking scheme that took place between December 2022 and June 2023. An undercover police operation uncovered the scheme.
According to court documents, the four men allegedly conspired to steal the vehicles at gunpoint and sell them later on. The stolen vehicles would end up in a garage on Florida Avenue NE, where the cars were cleaned up, photographed and offered for sale on an Instagram account. Some of the luxury cars that were stolen were going for as cheap as $1,500.
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In one of the carjackings, two of the suspects, Cedae Hardy, 19, and Keyonte Rice,19, were charged with shooting and killing Melvin Mayorga Hernandez in Hyattsville, Maryland, in January 2023. Hardy and Rice also face several carjacking and gun charges.
The other two suspects, Landrell Jordan, 19, and Malik Norman, 20, also face numerous carjacking charges and charges for brandishing a gun while committing a violent crime.
News4 covered one of the crimes back in May 2023. Video in that case showed two masked men jumping out of a car and then stealing a Porsche at gunpoint.
All four defendants are now in custody. The two charged in connection to Mayorga Hernandez’s death could face up to life in prison, and the other suspects face decades in prison if convicted.
The charges were a result of an extensive investigation with the FBI. D.C. police and other local law enforcement agencies all provided assistance in the case.
