In October 2022, police began their investigation.
44-year-old Aundre Cross scanned a package on December 2, 2022 as “Delivery Attempted — No Access to Delivery Location.” That package was addressed to Charles Ducksworth Jr.’s home. It came from a California address that had previously shipped a seized package of crystal meth to an address in another state. Postage for all the packages was purchased from a third party with Bitcoin.
Cross was murdered one week later, December 9, outside his mail truck at 5000 North 65th Street. Public videos track both the mail truck and a silver Audi SUV Kevin McCaa and Charles Ducksworth were believed to have been riding in. For nearly 40 minutes, the SUV tailed Cross. At 4:38 pm, a video shows one of the suspects walking from the car and across the street, approaching Cross from behind. A single gunshot is heard on the video. The suspect then runs back to the SUV and it speeds away. Surveillance video shows the SUV stopped near a bridge and that a person walked toward a creek. Several days later a 9mm semiautomatic handgun was recovered from the creek. The Wisconsin State Crime Lab determined a bullet casing from the murder scene matched the gun from the creek. The complaint details how a woman, Shanelle McCoy, lied to investigators by telling them she was driving the SUV the entire day while the murder happened. Investigators found the vehicle and plates were registered to McCoy. When interviewing her on December 12, she told law enforcement she was in possession of the vehicle doing DoorDash deliveries during the time of the murder, according to the complaint. Her app showed her logged in from 12:03am to 10:55pm that day. However, investigators found footage of McCoy making deliveries in a different vehicle that was registered to Ducksworth during the time of the murder. She is later seen switching back to her own vehicle around 10pm before logging off the app, the complaint stated.
On December 27, law enforcement executed search warrants on five related residences and arrested the three suspects. From one residence where McCaa and McCoy were arrested, two Glock magazines and several rounds of ammunition were recovered.
When arresting Ducksworth, law enforcement discovered a Glock 9mm handgun with a drum magazine and a large quantity of marijuana, which was believed to be for distribution.
“These arrests should make very clear to criminals everywhere that the Postal Inspection Service will not rest when it comes to solving attacks like this,” Kai Pickens, the acting inspector-in-charge of the Chicago Division U.S. Postal Inspection Service, said in a statement. “If you harm one of our employees, we will find you and put you behind bars.”
January 2023: Milwaukee police raided a home near Wright and Buffum. Inside, court filings say they found nearly 1,000 checks totaling more than $500,000. Also located were mailbox keys, chemicals and checks in the process of being “washed,” guns, cash and clothing with the word “Scamily” on them.
The “washing” was using an acetone to remove names from checks and write in new ones, and these would be cashed at banks with fake accounts created from dubious drivers licenses and social security numbers.
Armed robberies and mail thefts in Milwaukee ramped up beginning in February 2023 – three in March, including in Butler, and two in April. In March 2023, a mail carrier was making his rounds hear 38th and Ruby in Milwaukee. Prosecutors say two men pulled guns on him and stole a special key to get into mailboxes.
Around April 25, a mail carrier was robbed at gunpoint near 88th and Chambers.
Following arrest and charges of armed robbery and mail theft, Abdi Abdi and Darrion Allison made their first court appearances on May 2, 2023. Charges were dropped by the prosecutor in July. (It seems charged were dropped because similar charges were raised in federal court.)
On January 3, 2024, prosecutors charged 14 men with a total of 77 counts relating to robbery, mail theft, forgery, money laundering, racketeering and continuing a criminal enterprise. It accused all 14 men of participating in “a pattern of racketeering activity” from October 25, 2022, to November 7, 2023. At the top of the “Scamily” as the so-called “Don” was Huria Hassan Abu.
“A lot of the allegations are supported by evidence that was recovered as a result of warrants done for people’s social media accounts,” Milwaukee Assistant District Attorney Nick Heitman. Five of the men had pending federal cases – Huria Abu, Jessie Cook, Hussein Haji, Darrion Allisson and Abdi Abdi.
Regarding the state RICO charges, “It is a rarely used statute. In all honesty, I’ve been practicing criminal law for 27 years and have yet to come across this being used on one occasion, so far,” said Julius Kim, criminal defense attorney. Kim said RICO cases are difficult to prosecute and take a lot of time. But one thing has changed since the law’s creation decades ago. “The evidence gathering has gotten easier,” Kim said. With social media and text messages, “A paper trail is laid out there in black and white, between certain elements on the street and their bosses, that make these prosecutions a little bit more easier.”
February 6, 2024: The state court ordered no contact between Huria Abu, Abdi Abdi, Aaron O. Fudge, DeShawn C. Robinson, Kaperion T. Gatson, Amaurie Devin Smith, Jessie Cook, Hussein Haji, Darrion Allisson, Marvin Turner, Abdi I. Baba, Lazarus Jones, Anterian Williams, Dashaun Riddle.
As of now (May 5), the preliminary hearing was delayed repeatedly because the public defender’s office could not find anyone to take the case. The next hearing is May 24, if there’s an attorney to handle it.
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Darrell Edwards and Dionta Bratcher, both 29, were pulled over in Manitowoc in February 2023. In the car was a large amount of mail not addressed to them, including 61 checks to businesses in Green Bay totaling more than $120,000. Their license plate also matched that of a car that was seen in Little Chute putting mail in a dumpster – 16 pieces of that mail had been stolen from eight businesses in Fox Crossing. They were suspected of targeted the Greenville industrial park in late 2022, as well, but were not charged in Outagamie County.
2023, Derrell Edwards was sentenced to 90 days in jail in Manitowoc and two years in jail in Brown County. He was given Huber privileges that were later revoked when he cut off his ankle monitor. In January 2024, he was supposed to be sentenced in Winnebago county for mail theft, but as of April did not show and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
April 29, 2024, Dionta Bratcher was sentenced in Winnebgo County to 18 months in jail and two years of extended supervision for the theft of 10-29 pieces of mail. This overlapped a Brown County sentence and followed a Manitowoc sentence of six months in jail.
Edwards and Bratcher had stolen checks, altered them, and then cashed them at various bank accounts around the country. The total amount on the checks was over $500,000.