indica News Bureau-
A Texas woman on Tuesday was found guilty of leading a gang that carried out targeted robberies of Indian American homes across the United States.
The sentencing of Chaka Castro, 44, is scheduled for September 2019, before a District Court in Michigan.
According to evidence presented at trial, from 2011 to 2014, Chaka Castro and her robbery crews committed a string of home invasions in Georgia, New York, Ohio, Michigan and Texas.
The leader of the robbery crews was Chaka Castro, who would generate lists of robbery targets in various states around the county, specifically families of Asian and Indian ancestry, and then assign crews to carry out the armed robberies of these families within their homes, the Department of Justice said.
Once Castro assigned a crew to a particular area, members of the group would travel to that location, conduct surveillance, and execute the robberies.
The crews utilized a particular modus operandi in each of the robberies, it said adding that they disguised their appearance with clothing and bandanas so that victims of their robberies would have difficulty identifying them.
They would openly carry and brandish firearms to gain control of the victims and then immediately corral the victims, including children, into one location in the home, according to evidence presented during the trial.
At least one robber would then restrain the victims with duct tape and threats of violence while a partner would ransack the home in search of cash, jewelry, and electronics to steal. The group organized their trips to involve multiple home invasion robberies over a series of days, it said.