Photo Courtesy of Google
The check-cashing business is located on 164th Street in Hillcrest.
By Forum Staff
A 10-count superseding indictment was recently unsealed in Brooklyn federal court charging Robert Rodriguez with Hobbs Act robbery, Hobbs Act robbery conspiracy, and related firearms crimes for planning and executing four armed robberies targeting the owner and patrons of a Hillcrest check-cashing business in July 2020 and September 2021.
Rodriguez, 37, of Brooklyn, was arrested last week. His co-defendant, Raymundo Heyaime Sanchez, 25, also of Brooklyn, was previously arrested and indicted for Hobbs Act robbery and related crimes for his role in one of the four robberies charged in the superseding indictment. Sanchez is currently detained pending trial.
Photo Courtesy of DOJ
“Such openly menacing and violent conduct will not be tolerated,” U.S. Attorney Peace said.
As set forth in court filings, Rodriguez, Sanchez, and a co-conspirator targeted the owner of a check-cashing business located on 164th Street in Hillcrest. On July 3, 2020, after conducting surveillance of the owner’s home and business, the owner was confronted in the driveway of the business by masked bandits who pistol-whipped him on the back of the head before robbing him of more than $1 million. Rodriguez subsequently committed three additional robberies of the business’s customers more than a year later. On each occasion, Rodriguez purportedly waited in a vehicle near the check-cashing business until a customer departed, at which point he followed each victim by car before ultimately robbing the customer at gunpoint.
“As alleged in the superseding indictment, the defendant is charged with the brazen gunpoint robberies of the owner and customers of a Queens check cashing business,” said Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace. “Such openly menacing and violent conduct will not be tolerated.”
If convicted of the charges, the defendants face a mandatory minimum of 84 months’ imprisonment and up to life in prison.
