HOUSTON – Five Houston gang members have been charged in connection with the burglaries of two pharmacies in Virginia.
Police said security cameras captured images Saturday of Houston gang members breaking into two drugstores in the small Shenandoah Valley town of Harrisonburg, Virginia, about 1,300 miles from Houston.
A few hours after the break-ins, Harrisonburg police spotted a SUV similar to the one used in the burglaries. The car led them to five suspects, all from Houston.
Mustafah Smith, Wade Hall, David Gay, Frederick Eli and Michael Campbell were charged in the burglaries.
According to sources, all are gang members and career criminals from the Settegast neighborhood in northeast Houston.
Police said the group targeted the pharmacies to steal narcotics to be brought home to sell on Houston's streets.
All the suspects have extensive arrest records, racking up a total of 56 criminal charges among them in Harris County.
Two of them, Gay and Campbell, were charged in connection with similar burglaries in Lubbock, Texas, where two pharmacies were hit late last year.
Gay and Campbell were working with two other Houston gang members in those burglaries, police said.
One of them, identified as Brandon Allen, is still at large.