Indictment charges fake cops, real robbers in robbery conspiracy

FOR TWO YEARS, a 16-member "serial-robbery gang" based in Philly carried out a string of home invasions, including an elaborate heist in which members posed as police and wig-clad victims.

Yesterday, law-enforcement officials announced the arrests of 12 suspected members, ending what authorities called an "audacious crime spree." Four of the defendants were arrested yesterday morning, said Louis Lappen, first assistant U.S. attorney. The gang's alleged ringleader, Khalil "Lil" Smith, was already in custody from a prior robbery.

Two men sought in the case - Hasan "Big Has" Chaney and Brandon "B" Segers - remained at large yesterday, said Steven Bartholomew, spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The gang is being slapped with a laundry list of charges, including conspiring to commit a robbery that interferes with state trade. Each defendant faces at least five years in prison, with some facing an additional 32 years in prison at minimum, Lappen said. The investigation was led by the local U.S. Attorney's Office, the ATF, and the Philadelphia and Whitpain Township police departments.

Several of the ring's home invasions targeted suspected drug dealers in an effort to obtain more cash, officials said.

Authorities gave this account:

In 2013, two members entered Platinum Jewelers, on Market Street near 11th, dressed in disguises and posing as customers. Shortly after, two other defendants entered the store pointing a gun at the clerk while wearing imposter bulletproof vests with the word "Police" emblazoned on the front. Four defendants stood as lookouts listening in on a police scanner, but the group ending up leaving empty-handed when a store clerk activated a silent alarm notifying the police.

In its other alleged armed robberies, the gang used sophisticated GPS tracking and sometimes even used torture.

During an April 2014 raid of a home in the Philadelphia suburbs, eight members forced two victims to strip naked, at one point threatening to sodomize them "with a broom." They then water-boarded and poured boiling water on a victim, later making off with jewelry, an iPad and a Toyota Camry, Lappen said. Just a few months before, the gang had seized about 1/2-kilogram of cocaine, $10,000 and other items from a North Philly home.

In addition to Smith, these Philadelphia residents were charged: Mark Woods, Marcus Bowens, Michael Queen, Terrace Munden, Robert Hartley, Hasan Chaney, Levern Jackson, Braheim Ballard, William Jefferson, Daniel Hayes, Jeffrey Bellamy, Romel Anthony, Eric Scott, Brandon Segers. Also charged was Jamal Doggett, of Willingboro, N.J.