Southwest Houston business owner Abdul Kareem Karba says he feels safer Wednesday after Houston police arrested 21-year-old Jamarcus Wilson and Ricky Harrell, accused serial bank juggers.
Wilson and Harrell were arrested after police said they followed a man of middle Eastern descent from a bank on Westheimer to a nearby business on Richmond.
Police said they were in the area after Wilson broke into the man's car while he was inside a store.
“I haven't done anything,” Wilson said.
Police said Wilson and his accomplices have been targeting members of Houston’s Middle Eastern, south Asian, Vietnamese and Chinese communities for a while now.
“They watch them, surveillance them and when they leave the bank they follow them to their business location, their apartment complex to rob them for their money,” HPD Captain Yasar Bashir said.
Wilson is the same person police arrested in a bank-jugging case from May.
Wilson was accused of following an employee of Qatar’s consulate from a Galleria area bank and tried to break the windows of the Mercedes Benz believing the driver had money.
While that led to both state and federal charges, Wilson was eventually able to bond out of jail and Wednesday, police said, he was back at it again.
Wilson’s twin brother was arrested for a similar crime in April and their older brother is now serving prison time for jugging.
Police believe Wilson is part of a larger group of criminals who are responsible for dozens if not hundreds of bank jugging type crimes.
Harrell was on bond for possession of a controlled substance.
Both men were charged with engaging in organized crime and burglary of a motor vehicle.
They are gang members from northeast Houston and are believed to have been involved in dozens of crimes around the area, police said.
They are associated with a larger criminal organization that is responsible for crimes around the state, according to police.
