A federal jury in North Carolina has convicted a 24-year-old man from Florida for targeting individuals and performing a series of brutal home invasions in various states of the United States to steal cryptocurrencies physically.

Along with 13 other gang members, Remy St. Felix violated the privacy of people’s homes and held them hostage at gunpoint to siphon their crypto holdings from their accounts and wallets.

According to court documents and the evidence presented during the trial, St. Felix was the mind behind a sophisticated criminal enterprise that carried out a string of violent robberies between September 2022 and July 2023.

The gang’s operations were conducted in four states: North Carolina, Florida, Texas, and New York. The crew’s modus operandi involved carefully selecting targets who possessed a significant amount of digital assets. These individuals were vetted primarily via email and physical surveillance.

“The jury’s decision today—the most recent in over a dozen convictions in this case—should remind everyone that the Criminal Division and its partners are dedicated to holding violent criminals accountable, regardless of how advanced their crimes might be,” said Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, in a press release issued this week.

St. Felix Used Brutal Tactics to Steal Money from His Victims

Prosecutors from the Justice Department provided details about the tactics used by St. Felix and his co-conspirators, which include physical assault, kidnapping, restraining victims with zip ties, and holding victims at gunpoint while threatening them with further violence against them and their loved ones if they did not cooperate.

One particular incident in April 2023 started with breaking and entering the victim’s home and then using zip ties to hold a couple hostage while gang members threatened them and forced them to give up their access credentials to steal more than $150,000 worth of cryptocurrencies.

Gang members posed as construction workers to gain access to the victim’s property. Once in there, they proceeded to restrain the husband and drag the wife by the legs to trap her in one of the house’s bathrooms.

They installed remote access software on the victim’s computer and performed several transactions to drain the funds from a Coinbase account until they were blocked out of the system. The whole incident lasted over 45 minutes. Throughout that ordeal, gang members were brandishing guns and constantly issued threats to the couple to get them to cooperate and stay silent.

“The crimes committed by this ring of violent cryptocurrency thieves are shocking. They held victims hostage in their own homes and stole hundreds of millions of dollars from their crypto accounts,” commented Special Agent in Charge Robert M. DeWitt of the FBI Charlotte Field Office.

St. Felix’s operations were more than simple smash-and-grab incidents as the gang employed sophisticated tactics to launder the money they illicitly obtained from their victims by using anonymous crypto tokens like Monero and decentralized exchanges that did not require disclosing the account holder’s personal information to transact.

His tech-savvy accomplices provided real-time assistance during the robberies, facilitating the transfer of digital assets. To communicate with each other, the group utilized secure messaging apps to coordinate their activities and discuss potential targets.

“The defendant and his co-conspirators acted purely out of greed and callously terrorized those they targeted. The jury’s verdict in this case represents a vital step in securing justice for these victims,” commented U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Hairston for the Middle District of North Carolina, where the case was prosecuted.

FBI Cracks the Case with the Help of a DOJ Crypto-Focused Task Force

The successful prosecution of St Felix and his co-conspirators is considered an important achievement for law enforcement agencies to bring justice to the rapidly evolving practice of cryptocurrency-related crime.

The FBI’s Charlotte Field Office led the investigation with assistance from the Durham Police Department and FBI field offices in New York, Miami, Houston, Mobile, and Newark.

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“This investigation is an outstanding example of what a local FBI field office can accomplish. We hope the tireless work of our criminal and cyber squads can provide some sense of justice to the victims terrorized by this group,” DeWitt added.

Moreover, the team drew on resources from multiple arms of the Department of Justice including the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) – which has been tasked with investigating and uncovering criminals who use blockchain technology to perform sophisticated robberies and attempt to hide their tracks by relying on the perceived anonymity of distributed ledgers.

Bing Wang, Head of Legal at BaseVC, told Cointelegraph this week that criminals are attracted to the crypto space as they see their victims as easy targets as digital assets are not stored in a bank or a safe.

However, he stressed that authorities have developed methods to track stolen crypto and bring the perpetrators to justice. St. Felix’s case is an example of how effective law enforcement agencies are getting at stopping this type of crime.

Upon considering the mounting evidence against St. Felix and his group, the jury found him guilty on nine separate counts including kidnapping, wire fraud, and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of crimes of violence.

St. Felix faces a minimum of 7 years in jail for his crimes. However, the judge could opt to give him a life sentence for the severity of his offenses and the gruesome nature of the incidents. The sentencing hearing is scheduled to take place on September 11, 2024.

While the West Palm Beach criminal stood trial as the ringleader, law enforcement’s efforts extended far beyond a single individual. Thirteen of St Felix’s co-conspirators, including members of his home invasion crew, were all arrested. All of them pleaded guilty to their roles in the criminal enterprise.

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The conviction of St Felix and his associates comes at a time of intense focus on cryptocurrency-related criminal activity. While the total value of cryptocurrency theft decreased from $3.7 billion in 2022 to $1.7 billion in 2023, the actual number of reported hacking incidents rose from 219 to 231 during that same period, according to data from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis.

amount stolen in crypto drops in 2023 compared to previous year

The violent nature of St Felix’s operation, however, represents a disturbing escalation in cryptocurrency crime. They eliminated the gap between traditional home invasion robberies and virtual theft. This type of crime poses a unique threat to both public safety and the perceived security of cryptocurrency investments.

“Although the members of this violent conspiracy tried to cover their tracks through encrypted communication and anonymous financial transactions, they were not beyond the reach of our dedicated investigators and prosecutors,” DOJ’s Argentieri stressed.

U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Hairston for the Middle District of North Carolina added: “The victims in this case suffered a horrible, painful experience that no citizen should have to endure.”

Investors Should Take Measures to Protect Themselves Physically as Well as Virtually

The St. Felix case highlights the urgent need for enhanced security measures in the cryptocurrency space, both at the individual and institutional levels. As digital assets continue to gain mainstream adoption, investors must remain vigilant against both cyber and physical threats to their holdings. The existence of gangs like St. Felix’s make it important to not tell the world about your crypto. It’s not worth the risk.

Law enforcement agencies, for their part, are rapidly developing new capabilities to track and prosecute crypto-related crimes. The successful conviction of St. Felix demonstrates that even highly sophisticated criminal operations can be dismantled through coordinated investigative efforts.

As the cryptocurrency landscape continues to evolve, cases like this deliver a stark reminder of the ongoing challenges in balancing the promise of decentralized finance with the need for robust security and proper law enforcement actions.