Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, Devone Jefferys was sentenced by United States District Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto to 224 months’ imprisonment for Hobbs Act robbery conspiracy, attempted Hobbs Act robbery of heroin and cash, and the unlawful use and possession of a firearm.  Jefferys was found guilty at a jury trial in October 2019.

Seth D. DuCharme, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, John B. Devito, Special Agent-in-Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and Dermot F. Shea, Commissioner, New York City Police Department (NYPD), announced the sentence.

On July 31, 2015, Jefferys and a co-conspirator, impersonating NYPD police officers, entered an apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to steal heroin and cash from a drug dealer.  They pointed their guns at those present in the apartment – including a pregnant woman who was in labor, the drug dealer’s sister and the drug dealer’s mother – threatened them with violence, ordered them to lie on the floor, and bound them with duct tape.  Jefferys ransacked the apartment searching for drugs and cash, with his and his co-conspirator’s guns aimed on the victims’ heads and the pregnant woman’s stomach.  When Jefferys learned that the drug dealer’s sister had thrown a bag of heroin out a window, he forcibly took her to an outside alleyway and raped her.

“Today’s substantial sentence will protect the community by incapacitating this violent predator, who inflicted injury and terror upon his victims before he was brought to justice,” stated Acting United States Attorney DuCharme.  “I commend the prosecutors and the investigators who worked tirelessly to make this case and to bring a measure of closure to the victims.”

“Thanks to the diligent work of the ATF agents and NYPD detectives of the Joint Robbery Task Force, today the victims and the community finally have justice for this horrific crime,” stated ATF Special Agent-in-Charge DeVito.

“We work tirelessly to keep people from being victims of this kind of violence and join with our law enforcement partners in embracing today’s sentencing,” stated NYPD Commissioner Shea.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.  The Department of Justice reinvigorated PSN in 2017 as part of the its renewed focus on targeting violent criminals, directing all U.S. Attorneys’ Offices to work in partnership with federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement and the local community to develop effective, locally-based strategies to reduce violent crime.

The government’s case is being prosecuted by the Office’s International Narcotics and Money Laundering Section.  Assistant United States Attorneys Nathan Reilly and Ryan Harris are in charge of the prosecution.

The Defendant:

DEVONE JEFFERYS (also known as “Moneybags”)
Age:  28
Brooklyn, New York

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 18-CR-359 (KAM)