Long Island authorities just took down a gang behind a major car- and credit-card-theft ring — but said the “absurdity” of the state’s lax bail laws will likely dump most of the accused criminals right back on the street.
A whopping 250-count indictment unsealed Tuesday charged 13 members of the “CC Boyz” crew with breaking into more than 50 cars including a Maserati, stealing 15 of them and taking 75 credit cards that they used to buy more than $40,000 in ill-gotten goods at Target, Walmart and Apple stores, said Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney.
But Tierney said prosecutors could have a hard time keeping most of the thieving suspects behind bars.
“I want to note that despite the serious nature of these offenses, none of these offenses standing by themselves are bail-eligible,” Tierney told reporters.
“That means our prosecutors would not be able to request bail” unless a suspect has a criminal history that warrants it, although even then, the decision would be up to the judge.
“But standing alone, these cases are not bail eligible,” he said. “And I think that, once again, shows the absurdity of our bail laws and [that] our legislators have seen fit to allow organized criminals and gang members to engage in this repetitive, organized criminal activity, and we can’t even seek bail on that.”
The Empire State’s criminal justice reforms, passed in 2019, bar judges from setting bail on misdemeanors and most non-violent felonies, a move critics blame for upticks in crime.
The CC gang, helmed by three ringleaders, was the subject of a 15-month joint investigation by various law-enforcement agencies, officials said Tuesday.
Tierney said the illicit crew used online real-estate sites such as Zillow and realtor.com to pick neighborhoods they felt were most likely to have unlocked cars, while also frequenting parking lots at assisted-living facilities, golf courses, gyms and hotels.
They would break into vehicles and swipe at least some of them along with credit cards and other valuables inside, using the cards for electronics, pricey goods and gift cards, prosecutors said.
“Our team collected and analyzed hundreds of hours of video surveillance and put them together,” Tierney said. “We collected credit card records, store receipts. We interviewed hundreds of witnesses, and the investigation revealed that these car break-ins were related, and they were being allegedly committed by a crew that referred to themselves as ‘5L’or the ‘CC Boyz.’ “
“CC” refers to “Car Check” — the practice of checking what’s inside a car before breaking into it — while “5L” is a shout-out to the crew’s affiliation to the Bloods street gang, Tierney said.
“There’s five letters in the word blood. So it’s ‘5L,’ meaning blood, love. They are an alleged neighborhood gang based in Freeport and Hempstead who are affiliated with larger, well-known Blood sets,” the DA said.
The gang members then flashed the stolen cars, cash and pricey jewelry on social media “as a way to gain status within the gang and with the gang community,” Tierney said.
According to the indictment, three gang members served as ringleaders — Shawn Mullen, 24; Trevon Brandon Douse, 26; and Zio Fenner, 25 — and were responsible for most of the thefts.
Cops raided Mullen’s home and found 122 drivers licenses, 20 key fobs, 15 social security cards, 20 checkbooks, 14 passports, eight cell phones and 45 credit and debit cards, Tierney said.
“They were being kept as tokens or mementos,” the DA said.
Police also recovered two guns at Fenner’s home, including one stolen in March 2023, he said.
But despite hundreds of grand larceny, theft and conspiracy charges against the 13 reputed gang members, prosecutors will have a hard time keeping many of them locked up, Tierney said.
“I think that there’s this thought that no one’s watching, no one cares. ‘We can do what we want. It’s a non-violent crime. No one’s going to do anything about it,’ ” he said.
“But, you know, my office will certainly do something about it.”
Only four of the alleged gangbangers have had bail set at their arraignments — Mullen at $1 million cash or bonds of up to $10 million, and Douse and Fenner at $500,000 cash or bonds of up to $5 million, the district attorney’s office said.
One other suspect, Jaquan Wilson, also had bail set at $100,000 cash or bonds of up to $1 million.
The remaining defendants were either released without bail in keeping with the law or have yet to be officially arraigned on the charges, prosecutors said.