Five Philadelphia men were convicted at a trial Thursday in connection with at least 29 carjackings in and around the city, where they would allegedly ship the stolen cars to Africa for resale, officials said. They were also charged in connection with two murders. 

Mikal McCracken,  Amin Muse, Aleem Abdul-Hakim, Dean Fosque and Kavon Coleman were convicted in the conspiracy that spanned from October 2021 to October 2022, according to officials. Some of the charges included carjacking resulting in death, conspiracy and murder. 

“These defendants ran one of the most extensive and terrible carjacking rings in American history that terrorized and, in some cases killed, its victims. When viewed by the sheer scale and volume of violent robberies, this prosecution represents perhaps the most successful carjacking prosecution in the history of the Department of Justice,” U.S. Attorney David Metcalf said in a statement. “That campaign of dread is done. The streets we walk and drive on are now safer thanks to the fantastic work of the FBI and all of our law enforcement partners on the Carjacking Task Force.”  

Officials said McCracken, Muse, Abdul-Hakim, Fosque and Coleman, and others committed dozens of gunpoint carjackings in Southwest and Northeast Philadelphia, including multiple in one night. They allegedly often assaulted their victims, sometimes by shooting them, and stole personal information like credit cards and money. Officials said in some cases the suspects used the stolen personal items to commit fraud crimes.

They also committed some carjackings in the suburbs like Yeadon, Millbourne, Lower Southampton and King of Prussia. 

Overall, the carjacking ring involved about 60 carjackings, including 29 that were charged in the superseding indictment. One of those carjackings resulted in the murder of a person and a potential witness. 

Officials said the first murder happened on Feb. 6, 2022, when McCracken, Muse, and Abdul-Hakim, along with Jonathan Akubu, carjacked a person and fatally shot them in the process. 

According to officials, the group fled the scene in the victim’s car, but they didn’t take the person’s key fob, which they would need to keep driving the vehicle. 

McCracken, Muse, Abdul-Hakim and Akubu then reached out to a locksmith to get a new key fob made. But once it was made, police found the stolen car. 

Officials said the group believed law enforcement would run forensics and identify the locksmith, who they feared would cooperate with police. About a week later, officials said McCracken, Muse, Abdul-Hakim and Akubu shot and killed the locksmith to prevent him from talking to police.

“This case represented some of the very worst of what we saw during the rise of violent carjackings: calculated, coordinated, and completely indifferent to human life,” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin J. Bethel said in a statement in part. “These individuals didn’t just steal cars — they terrorized neighborhoods, took innocent lives, and attempted to silence witnesses to cover their crimes. Thanks to the relentless work of the Philadelphia Police Department and our federal partners, this violent crew has been dismantled and held accountable.”

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