Police ask for help locating 'bank jugging' suspects

Scheme involves targeting recent bank customers for cash

Carlos Rusi, at left, and Chikei Williams

HOUSTON – Houston police are looking for two gang members who are accused of “bank jugging.”

The term refers to targeting bank customers as they leave their financial institution. The criminals behind the so-called bank jugging typically follow the customer from the bank, with the intent to steal the cash he or she has just withdrawn, according to the Houston Police Department.

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Officers are requesting information from the public on Carlos Rusi and Chikei Williams, who were arrested and charged with a bank jugging-related crime Jan. 4. They posted $100,000 bond and haven’t been heard from since, police said.

Rusi and Williams are from Northeast Houston. Most recently, they are accused of following someone from a Houston-area bank, burglarizing that person’s vehicle and stealing the property from the victim, officers said. Both men have an open felony warrant for engaging in organized criminal activity, according to a news release.

The warrants, filed Friday, are out of Harris County's 338th District Court.

In 2009, Rusi robbed an undercover Houston officer during a drug deal, and he was sentenced to five years in jail. In 2014, Rusi was charged in another bank jugging investigation, and subsequently sentenced to 12 months behind bars.

Rusi is well-known to authorities in Harris County, police said. He has had more than 30 arrests.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.