"Jugging" suspect robbed bank customers in California, Texas, before Denver arrest
One of two Houston men suspected of repeatedly flying into Denver and waiting outside banks to jump customers was recently sentenced to prison. The other man remains at large.
During one trip, Isaiah Fitzgerald Moses and his accomplice committed six thefts within a two-week stay in the metro area a year ago, according to his arrest affidavit. A nationwide crime bulletin about the "jugging" activity in other parts of the country had already been issued by federal authorities by the time his plane landed here.
The term "jugging" was originally used by cooks to describe stewing or boiling fish or game inside a covered pot. Thieves have adopted the term more recently to label the pursuit of bank customers and holding them up or breaking into their vehicles to steal their cash.
The two men allegedly stole a total of $47,200 from Coloradans by using the tactic.
The thefts occurred Dec. 5 through Dec. 19, 2024. In one incident, a woman left a Thornton bank and drove to a Walmart in the next block. She told investigators she was in the store for five minutes but returned to find the passenger side window broken and the bank envelope containing her $700 missing from inside a compartment.
Two days later, a van parked outside a Denver plumbing and heating business had the driver's side window broken and $3,500 taken from inside.
Ten days after that, in Aurora, a man left $15,000 from a bank withdrawal in his vehicle. It, too, was broken into and the money taken.
In all of those incidents, the victims walked out of Wells Fargo banks. Investigators surmised the thieves were familiar with the envelopes the bank used to store large amounts of customers' cash.
In two other incidents, Moses pulled guns on his victims, according to the Denver District Attorney's Office.
Moses's affidavit was written by a Denver Police Department investigator who also holds positions with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives and its RAVEN (Regional Anti-Violence Enforcement Network) Task Force. The affidavit notes how local and federal investigators obtained search warrants for Moses's cell phone and bank records. They tied Moses and his accomplice to the thefts by noting his cell phone's tracking in the area at the times they occurred. Bank records and airline flights between Denver and Houston were among the other evidence presented in his case.
The arrest affidavit was signed in April. At that time, Moses was to be detained on theft, trespassing, and money laundering charges. In court, Moses struck a plea deal with prosecutors; those charges were dropped in exchange for his admission of guilt to an organized crime (COCCA) racketeering charge.
No details of Moses's arrest were made available.
On Dec. 12, Moses was sentenced in Denver District Court to 19 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections. In addition to the prison term, the judge ordered Moses to repay $47,450 in restitution to his victims.
Moses and another man, Denzel Tyrell Lawson, were both arrested previously for suspected jugging in Los Angeles in 2023 and Austin, Texas, in 2018, according to online reports. Lawson is identified as Moses's accomplice in the metro Denver theft, according to the affidavit. A spokesman for the Denver District Attorney's Office, however, indicated that others may also be involved.
"The other people who worked with Moses have not yet been arrested, and their cases are sealed," spokesman Matt Jablow wrote in an email, "so we cannot discuss them."
