Three men arrested in robbery of courier transporting $436,000 worth of cash from cannabis dispensaries in Massachusetts – Boston 25 News

“I heard the first bang and woke myself up. “I heard the second bang and jumped out of bed,” local resident Lauren Lang recalled.

The courier, driving a Ford Explorer loaded with multiple cash pickups from cannabis dispensaries such as Provincetown, Wellfleet, Plymouth, Middleboro and Fall River, drove to Bay Coast Bank in Swansea at 12:36 p.m. on Feb. 19 to make the Deposit money, documents specified. Since the bank was closed for the Presidents’ Day holiday, the driver wanted to leave the money in an overnight drop box.

“According to a review of the manifests, the courier had approximately $436,200.89 cash on him that morning for deposit at Bay Coast Bank and another bank in the area,” the complaint states. “Slightly more than $373,000 of this amount was cash picked up by the courier at the Fall River pharmacy stop immediately prior to the attempted deposit at Bay Coast Bank.”

Two minutes later, at 12:38 p.m., a U-Haul van with Arizona plates pulled into the bank’s parking lot and pulled up next to the courier’s vehicle. Then two masked men got out of the van, tied the courier with zip ties, sprayed pepper spray in his face and fled with bags of cash, the documents say.

Investigators believe the suspects spent hours searching the bank from the Prime Storage parking lot, waiting for the courier to arrive.

About a mile from the bank on Reed Road, the suspects set the U-Haul on fire, according to investigators. According to the documents, a man told police he saw the suspects exit the burning vehicle and get into a Jeep Grand Cherokee, which nearly hit him as it sped away.

After the robbery, investigators searched surveillance videos, RMV records and T-Mobile tower data, eventually leading them to Madison, White and McDonald.

It is alleged that Madison and White carried out the robbery while McDonald served as the getaway driver.

“A review of the available data shows that during the relevant time periods, all three devices were connected to towers, indicating that they were present during the theft of the U-Haul, the robbery, and the burning of the U-Haul,” Special wrote Agent Eric Mercer in a criminal complaint. “A review of location records and call detail records show that Madison’s phone was connected to towers on the morning of February 19, consistent with the drive to White’s apartment in Raynham. Afterwards, the records show tower connections consistent with Madison and White traveling to Swansea. McDonald’s phone records show his phone also traveled from his home in Brockton to Swansea that morning.”

Mercer said the T-Mobile data led investigators to Abington, where it was determined the U-Haul had been stolen before the robbery.

Fire investigators say they found pepper spray in the torched U-Haul. Investigators found that firearms, cash, cable ties and masks were seized during the raids on the suspects’ homes.

All three suspects faced a judge after their arrest. Details of the court proceedings were not immediately available.

An investigation is still ongoing.

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