Authorities in Maryland said Friday that they’ve solved nearly three dozen “jugging” cases dating back to 2023.
Indictments were announced against seven men – five from Maryland and two from D.C. – for 34 crimes that occurred between August 2023 and July 2024.
The term “jugging” is used to describe a certain type of armed robbery where the victim is held up as they’re walking from a bank or ATM to another location with cash in hand. It’s a crime that has exploded in frequency in recent years.
Attorney General Anthony Brown said in a news conference that more than $155,000 was taken from the victims in those cases.
“These perpetrators methodically stalked individuals, individuals who are making substantial cash withdrawals from financial institutions across five counties,” Brown said. “Their pattern was calculated and brutal, disguised in masks and dark or tactical clothing, they would ambush victims, often in broad daylight, subjecting them to physical violence, including striking, choking and, at least in one incident, biting their victims.”
“The targets were ordinary residents, people withdrawing money, conducting routine financial transactions,” he added. “These weren’t merely robberies. The assailants brandished firearms and discharged weapons to terrorize their victims, making their intentions unmistakenly clear: Your money or your life.”
Four people have been charged for their suspected involvement in one crew, which operated from August 2023: Tyriq Walker, 25, of Upper Marlboro; Gary Cloutterbuck, 25, of D.C.; Zavier Williams, 25, of Upper Marlboro; and Robert Hill, 23, of White Plains.
The indictment charges those four with two counts of attempted murder as well, after authorities say they shot at multiple victims during these robberies, including one that tried to follow a victim’s car after a robbery at a bank off Route 301 in Bowie.
Walker is already behind bars after pleading guilty to armed robbery charges in Howard County last year. All four have been arrested for violent crimes before in recent years.
Authorities report that three other suspects were working together in a separate crew: Dujuan Smalls, 20, of Upper Marlboro; Roland Thompson, 22, of D.C.; and Jeremy Manago, 19, of Capitol Heights.
They were responsible for the most lucrative robbery, which targeted someone working on an ATM in Greenbelt in June 2024. Brown’s office said $70,000 was stolen.
“At first, the organization would rob victims as they left a bank and were in the parking lot, usually as they were going to their car,” said Kate Dorian, head of the Criminal Division in Brown’s office. “But beginning in October of 2023, their tactics evolved and the members and associates of the criminal organization began to follow victims as they drove away from the bank. The defendants would follow the victims in their own vehicle and then rob the victims when they arrived home or stopped at other businesses.”
Dorian said they would even crash into their victims while driving.
The most passionate comments came from William Lowry, the assistant police chief in Anne Arundel County, where nine of the robberies occurred.
“You think you’re tough because you make the decision to steal people’s cars, which takes away their livelihood,” Lowry said. “A lot of these folks’ cars … it’s their only way to get to work, or their only way to take children (to school). So the trauma that they went through just with that is insurmountable.”
“You’re nothing but cowards,” he added. “And you’re a plague on society.”
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