Miami-Dade: Robbery Crew Targeting Facebook Marketplace Sellers Dismantled

Five people have been arrested in Florida after being identified as responsible for a string of eleven armed robberies targeting phone and laptop sellers on Facebook Marketplace.

The first robbery happened in October 2025. A phone seller, a deal gone wrong, an item that vanished. At the time, it looked like nothing more than an isolated incident.

Then a second robbery. A third. Always the same hunting ground — Facebook Marketplace — and always the same targets: phones and laptops, small enough to pocket, easy to resell. The pattern kept repeating without anyone, at first, connecting the scattered cases across Miami-Dade County.

Over seven months, eleven armed robberies and six grand thefts eventually traced back to the same crew. Sellers contacted online, a meeting arranged in a perfectly normal tone, and then, at the moment of exchange, a weapon appears and the item changes hands without a dollar ever being paid.

It ultimately took a sting operation to crack the case. Investigators posted their own listing, posing as ordinary sellers, and waited for the group to walk into the trap they'd set in return.

Five people were arrested: Terrell Barry, 20, Kareem Watkins, 18, Adrion Hall, 22, Nikell Etienne, 23, and James Royal, 32. All now face charges connected to the series. Search warrants recovered some of the stolen property.

What stands out in this case is how long it took to link eleven separate robberies back to a single crew — the time it takes investigators to patiently piece together a repeated pattern.