ARMENIAN POWER GANGSTERS USED CRAIGSLIST TO ROB, COPS SAY
LA Weekly
Aug 7 2013
By Dennis Romero Wed., Aug. 7 2013 at 8:03 AM
Selling stuff via Craigslist can be harmful to your health sometimes.
And cops this week were warning the CL faithful to beware.
Two men were arrested and another was sought after a Craigslist
sale turned into a robbery, with an iPhone 5 being snatched from the
victim in Panorama City, the LAPD alleged. The two are Armenian Power
gangsters, cops said:
It started when the 24-year-old victim, who had advertised a laptop
for sale, met up with the trio about 8 p.m. Saturday in a McDonald’s
parking lot at 9107 Van Nuys Blvd., police said.
Suspect Levon Iskandaryan, 23, allegedly “coerced the seller to walk
to a nearby car by saying the rear passenger was pointing a gun at
him,” according to an LAPD statement.
Cops say Mambreh Khachian, 33, was indeed holding a gun, and that
a third suspect was behind the wheel. The LAPD alleges this is what
happened next:
Iskandaryan grabbed the phone from the victim, then the two struggled
over it for a moment. When the victim lost his hold, the car door
shut, but caught the victim’s clothing. As the car sped away, it
dragged the victim for several feet, tearing his clothes, scraping
and burning his skin.
Alas, it appeared that the two named suspects were easily found,
ostensibly through the smartphones “Find My iPhone” app. According
to an LAPD statement:
Detectives pinged the phone and traced the signal to a house in the
7900 block of Hillrose Street, Sunland.
Guess who was there? Khachian, who left and was tailed by detectives,
and Iskandaryan, who lives there with his parents, cops said.
The latter is on probation, so officers were able to search the place,
but they didn’t come up with the phone, according to police.
Cops said the duo confessed to the robbery because they were concerned
the earlier dragging of the victim might have killed him.
Detectives allege the phone was subsequently “fenced” before they
could recover it: Iskandaryan and Khachian advertised it on — you
guessed it — Craigslist for $350 and quickly found a buyer at a
Starbucks in Glendale, police said.
The device’s location services confirmed it had been at the Starbucks,
they said. Now they want the buyer to come forward and turn it in.
Some but not all of the cash was recovered from suspects, cops said.
Iskandaryan and Khachian were booked on suspicion of armed robbery
and jailed in lieu of $125,000 each. The two are “documented members”
of the gang known as Armenian Power, police said.
The driver got away and cops are looking for him.
If you have the phone or info on the man behind the wheel, detectives
would like to hear from you: 213-838-9898.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress