Police: Six 'Felony Lane Gang' members arrested at Fort Thomas bank

Six people were arrested at the Fort Thomas WesBanco bank Wednesday after police were tipped off the group may be engaging in acts of fraud, officials said.

"It is believed this group is involved with a larger nationwide criminal enterprise known as the 'Felony Lane Gang,'" Fort Thomas police said in a news release.

The six people were charged with multiple crimes related to theft and fraud including “engaging in organized crime.” They are being held at the Campbell County Detention Center awaiting trial.

Police said those arrested have no known ties to the area.

This is not the first time police have suspected the gang of committing crimes in Fort Thomas. In 2018, police connected two different crimes to the gang.

Operating since at least 2012, the Felony Lane Gang has been implicated in dozens of thefts across the country.

Travis Russ, believed at the time to be the leader of the group based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison in 2014. But the thefts continued.

In 2016, six men were indicted on 384 felony charges in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. Police said those men were also part of the gang.

The FBI says the group's victims are almost always female.

"Decentralized crews often operate independently," the FBI states. "The group utilizes rental vehicles with heavily tinted windows to conduct surveillance in parking lots and steal identification documents (IDs), credit cards, and checkbooks from unattended vehicles."

Gyms, daycare facilities and recreation areas are often targets, the FBI reports. Anywhere "women would be more likely to leave their purses in their vehicles," investigators said.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Police: 6 'Felony Lane Gang' members arrested at Fort Thomas bank