According to a recently unsealed indictment, eight men have been charged by Cuyahoga County prosecutors for operating a luxury car-theft scheme for several months last year. The indictment alleges that the men posed as customers and stole 29 vehicles worth at least $1.5 million.
According to prosecutors, the group targeted around 20 dealerships in Ohio, Michigan, and Florida from May to September, and managed to steal luxury vehicles such as BMW X models, Cadillac Escalades, and Mercedes-Benz SUVs. Among the stolen cars, four of them are worth over $100,000, including a 2021 Bentley Bentayga valued at $208,474 and a Porsche Cayenne listed at $138,020.
According to prosecutors, the thefts were committed by a group of thieves who targeted various dealerships in the Cleveland area over a period of four months. These dealerships included Montrose Westside Auto Group in Cleveland, Cleveland Motorsports in North Olmsted, Mercedes-Benz of North Olmsted, Porsche North Olmsted, BMW of Westlake, and Classic BMW in Willoughby Hills.
In March, a 44-count indictment was filed in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, which accuses eight individuals of operating a criminal enterprise. The charges against each of them include engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, conspiracy, and aggravated theft of $1.5 million or more. Additionally, the indictment lists several counts of breaking and entering and grand theft. The indictment was unsealed last month.
The Columbus area is where the majority of the eight defendants hail from. Within the past two weeks, six of them have been arraigned and have pleaded not guilty. As for the remaining two suspects, they are still at large.
According to the indictment, the heist scheme involved a complex process. The defendants would pretend to be interested in buying luxury cars during the day and convince salespeople to give them the fobs. However, instead of returning the fobs before leaving, they would secretly switch them with similar-looking ones and give those to the unaware salespeople.
According to the prosecutors, the thieves used the genuine fobs that they had stolen from the dealership to break-in and steal the vehicles they had previously viewed during closing hours. After that, the stolen cars were quickly transported to other cities or sometimes even other states, as stated in the indictment. Furthermore, the defendants also resorted to stealing drivers’ license plates to hide the true identity of the stolen vehicles.
Eight individuals have been identified as the defendants in the case. They include Mamadou Diaw, aged 24, and Mamadou Sy, aged 27, both hailing from Columbus. Jerrold Johnson, aged 52, also from Columbus, and Mamadou Djithe Sall, aged 25, from Canal Winchester. The remaining defendants are Amadou Demba Diallo, aged 26, of Canal Winchester, Momodou Sere Jallow, aged 20, of New York, El Hadji Cisse, aged 20, also from New York, and Hamzah Jawo, aged 26, from Atlanta.
All of the accused, except for Cisse and Jawo, have been released on $20,000 bonds. Diaw, on the other hand, remains in jail on the same bond. Jallow, who had been granted bail, is now in custody after his bond was revoked due to a Pennsylvania warrant. While Cisse was expected to appear in court on Tuesday, he failed to show up, leading to the issuance of an arrest warrant. Similarly, Jawo is also wanted by the authorities.
The legal representatives of all the defendants were contacted by Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. It was found that Jawo did not have a listed attorney. Joseph Jacobs, the lawyer of Cisse, refused to provide any comments on the matter.
Common Pleas Judge Timothy Clary has been assigned to the case.
In a previous case, county prosecutors had accused 11 individuals of operating a distinct luxury car-theft plot. According to the prosecutors, the defendants had stolen high-end cars worth $5 million from dealerships in Ohio, including one that belonged to Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson.