‘High-value’ items worth $1.6M stolen from UPS warehouses, feds say. Now, 3 plead guilty
Three men accused of breaking into dozens of UPS warehouses across the U.S. in search of expensive electronics have pleaded guilty to the burglary scheme that lasted more than two years, federal prosecutors said.
Sekou Fofanah, Shamaire Brown and Quamaire Brown were involved in stealing packages with “high-value” items worth more than $1.6 million from 55 UPS facilities, including in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Rhode Island, according to prosecutors.
When a warehouse was broken into, packages with “lithium-ion battery” warnings were raided — as the men knew these markings likely meant electronics were inside, prosecutors said.
Fofanah, 20, Shamaire Brown 19, and Quamaire Brown, 19, all from Philadelphia, each pleaded guilty to informations charging them with one count of conspiracy to commit cargo theft, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey said in a March 28 news release.
Aboudramane Karamoko also took part in the burglary spree that went on from January 2021 to April 2023, prosecutors said. The case against him is pending.
Stephen Natoli, Shamaire Brown’s court-appointed defense attorney, told McClatchy News in an emailed statement on April 1 that “going forward,” his client “is focused on his family and personal growth.”
McClatchy News contacted attorneys appointed to represent Fofanah, Quamaire Brown and Karamoko for comment April 1 and didn’t receive immediate responses.
The men, and others accused of taking part in the scheme, typically targeted UPS warehouses on Saturday nights into Sunday morning, prosecutors said in a previous news release. Other potential suspects have not been publicly identified.
The loading bay doors of the facilities were the primary entry point, according to prosecutors.
The men would either smash the windows of these doors or pry them open so a smaller person could “squeeze through,” prosecutors said, McClatchy News previously reported.
They carried out the burglaries dressed in all black while wearing balaclavas or other garments to hide their faces, according to a criminal complaint, which says the men operated “in teams of four to six.”
According to the informations charging Shamaire Brown and Quamaire Brown in the case, they were involved in stealing packages with nearly $85,000 worth of electronics and other items from a UPS facility in Monroe, New Jersey, in June 2022.
A week later, they’re accused of stealing packages with $40,100 worth of merchandise from a UPS warehouse in Bridgewater, New Jersey, the court filings say.
According to the information for Fofanah, he was involved in stealing packages with $27,707 worth of products inside from a UPS warehouse in Lawnside, New Jersey, in June 2021.
A week later, he was involved in burglarizing a UPS facility in Vineland, New Jersey, where packages with electronics worth $87,741 were stolen, the information says.
Fofanah, Shamaire Brown and Quamaire Brown are facing up to five years in prison, according to prosecutors.
The three men could also face up to a $250,000 fine “or twice the amount of money involved in the offense, whichever is greater,” prosecutors said.
“We appreciate law enforcement’s diligence in this investigation,” UPS previously told McClatchy News on Nov. 20.
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