Feds take down violent Southern California robbery crew amid 6-week crime spree
Three men and one woman have been charged in connection with a six-week armed robbery spree of pharmacies across Southern California, officials announced Wednesday.
In a Department of Justice news release, officials said investigators with the Bureau Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Orange County Violent Crime Task Force had been investigating the armed robbery crew, who reportedly hit pharmacies in Woodland Hills, Newport Beach, Fullerton and Temecula.
During the crew’s last robbery, federal agents said 25-year-old Menifee resident Kamaria Kendrick scouted the Apollo Pharmacy in Temecula.
The store’s security cameras captured the 25-year-old as she walked around the pharmacy while on the phone, exited and then drove around the building several times.
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The three other suspects, identified as 39-year-old Fontana resident Aaron Carter, 25-year-old Victorville resident Diamond Lucious and 35-year-old San Bernardino resident Isaac Penaldoza, soon entered the pharmacy wearing hoodies, masks and gloves while Kendrick waited in the car.
Surveillance footage captured the three men jumping over the store’s counter where Lucious and Penaldoza brandished their guns, grabbed them and forced them to the ground.
While Carter walked to the rear of the store where the safe was, Penaldoza forced an Apollo employee at gunpoint to the same area.
“After an employee said that there was nothing in the safe, Carter, Lucious, and Penaldoza allegedly fled to the getaway car driven by Kendrick,” the release stated.
ATF agents intercepted the crew as they were attempting to get away with Kendrick behind the wheel of the car. While trying to evade authorities, she struck one of the law enforcement vehicles, though the crew’s car was immobilized, at which time agents said a 9mm pistol “fell out of the car.”
All four were arrested at the scene.
Investigators say that the crew’s previous robberies followed the same format, with two of the suspects being armed, violently manhandling employees and stealing cash from the registers, with a third suspect using a store trashcan to collect stolen medications.
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Carter, Lucious and Penaldoza have all been convicted of previous felonies and were on post-release supervision or parole at the time of their arrest.
None of them are legally allowed to possess firearms of any kind.
All four members of the robbery crew have been charged with attempted interference with commerce by robbery, also known as the Hobbs Act.
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