Carjackers Seek Luxe SUVs to Ship Abroad
The FBI is trying to break up African carjacking rings that prey on suburbanites with luxury SUVs and quickly ship the vehicles abroad.
The crimes reached a harrowing climax last week when three men from Sierra Leone allegedly carjacked two women hours apart - one of whom grabbed their gun long enough to free her 7-year-old daughter from the back seat.
The gun went off during the scuffle, striking one suspect in the thumb.
"The thieves want the car intact. ... They get paid to deliver that vehicle with its keys," said Delaware County District Attorney G. Michael Green, whose office is prosecuting one of the two attacks Wednesday. "So the anti-theft devices in these vehicles are compromised because essentially they attack the driver."
A shootout with police ensued that night when the suspects drove the second stolen vehicle into a stakeout, officials said. Green's office has filed a long list of charges, including robbery and aggravated assault, against Unisa Kamara, 19, of Dale City, Va.; Jakuba Kamara, 29, of Philadelphia; and Omaru Sannoh, 20, the injured suspect.
While the trio await court hearings, police are trying to determine whether they have ties to a handful of other African carjacking "cells" they have pursued in the past year. At least five other African men have been charged in federal court in Philadelphia. One of them - Liberian refugee Musa Donzo - is set to be sentenced Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the FBI this month issued an alert for James "Tow-P" Dou, believed to head a Liberian group that pulled off a rash of area carjackings this summer.
The thieves have very specific vehicles in mind - with Range Rovers, Cadillac Escalades, BMWs and other pricey sport-utility vehicles topping the list. They might even have a specific order for a make and model, according to interviews with police, prosecutors and FBI officials.
And while some officials believe women are more often targeted, FBI spokeswoman Jerri Williams isn't so sure.
"They see the (desired) car, they've got a gun and they want you out. I don't think it makes a difference if it's a man or a woman," she said.
The victims are often tailed until they drive home or to a remote location, although the woman who wrestled the gun from her attackers last week was confronted outside her day-care center.
Typically, the rings pay $500 to $1,500 to a young immigrant assigned to steal a car, investigators said. Other people in the ring forge titles, handle the shipping and get the vehicle from the port in Africa or Europe to the intended buyer, perhaps through several intermediaries, they said.
And while it's nothing new for stolen American cars to end up overseas, thieves are apparently resorting to carjacking because new luxury cars can be nearly impossible to steal without a key.
"They can't wait until the victim parks their car and steal it, because they need the key," said Philadelphia Police Lt. Frank Vanore. "But their propensity to violence is scary, because they're young males and they are obviously armed with firearms."
Donzo, who came to the U.S. in 2003, did well enough at a Philadelphia public high school to win admission to college. But instead of enrolling in the fall of 2006, he was arrested for trying to carjack a nurse at gunpoint outside her Bensalem home that September.
"Donzo pulled a gun from his waistband and told her to give him the keys," Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Gray said.
The plot failed when Donzo and an accomplice, even with the key, could not start the vehicle's tricky ignition system. He was convicted during a summer trial in which co-defendant Joseph Jarlee testified against him, Gray said.
Prosecutors are seeking a sentence of more than 11 years in prison, not to mention the deportation that would likely follow.
Donzo's defense lawyer, Andrew F. Erba, did not return a telephone message Monday.
It was not immediately clear if Sannoh and the Kamaras had lawyers.
