Jury Rejects Federal Charges of Miami Muggers’ Crime Syndicate

A mammoth government effort to prove tourist muggers in Miami were running an organized crime syndicate ended in failure Tuesday when a federal jury failed to convict 12 defendants on any conspiracy charge.

Prosecutors flew in dozens of people from Europe and South America to testify about crimes allegedly committed against them by members of the group, nicknamed “the dirty dozen,” during visits to Miami in the early 1990s.

The four-month trial was followed by nearly two months of jury deliberations.

But the 11-member federal jury said the government failed to prove many of its contentions that the defendants committed crimes against the tourists who testified, even those for which some were already serving sentences meted out in state court.

It failed to return a verdict on most of the charges that the group had been an organized criminal enterprise, returning “not guilty” verdicts on a handful of others.

“It’s a complete defense victory. The government’s RICO [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act] prosecution was totally rejected,” said William Matthewman, co-lead defense counsel.

In what was believed to be the first such use of the statute, prosecutors had also prosecuted the group for violating the Hobbs Act designed to govern trade, arguing that the robbers had interfered with Florida’s commerce by preying on its $32-billion-a-year tourism industry.

But the jury failed to return verdicts or found the defendants not guilty on every Hobbs Act charge.