OAKLAND — Police investigators around the Bay Area have linked dozens of burglaries to an East Oakland-based gang known as 65th Village, whose members alleged used stolen cars, sledgehammers, and intimidation to steal thousands in merchandise around the region.
The burglary crew is believed to be responsible for store break-ins and robberies in Benicia, Danville, San Ramon, Oakland, Novato, Sunnyvale, Oakley, Walnut Creek, Ashland, and Orinda, according to court records. Most recently, four suspected members of the crew were charged with backing a vehicle through the front-end of a Shell gas station on Broadway in Oakland, while the scared owner scurried into a security room in the back as the suspects grabbed merchandise and fled in three vehicles.
The Shell smash-in occurred on the morning of March 21, about an hour after a similar burglary targeted Rose Liquors in Benicia, authorities said.
The defendants, Keith Thomas, 28, Michael “Mook Bandz” Nelson, 33, Quintin Nelson, 28, and Andre Dupree-LaFleur, 32, were charged in last July with multiple counts of burglary, while Quintin Nelson and Dupree-LaFleur were also charged with illegal gun possession, court records show., Thomas and Dupree-LaFleur pleaded not guilty this week, while the others were arraigned in late July, records show. All four men have been released from jail.
Thomas is also charged with conspiracy and organized retail theft in Contra Costa, where he and other alleged 65th Village members are suspected in a series of similar heists. The modus operandi generally involved either scaring a convenience store owner and fleeing with thousands of dollars of cigarettes, like one such incident in Walnut Creek where masked men stole $8,000 in tobacco products, authorities said.
Other times the group used sledgehammers to smash cases of jewelry or other valuables in consignment stores. In one typical incident on Sept. 11, 2024, three masked men smashed cases in a Danville business and ran off with $70,000 in merchandise. Police tracked the group to Oakland, but lost track of the car after it got off on Golf Links Road, authorities said.
The investigation are based on cellphone records, surveillance footage, and other details, like a release of liability form in Thomas’ girlfriend’s name, which was associated with a car seen fleeing burglaries in Orinda, Novato and Oakley, authorities said. In another incident last May 23, police put a tracking device on a Lexus believed to have been stolen by 65th Village members, only to have the car be used to steal another Lexus, then travel to Sunnyvale, where both cars were used in a burglary involving seven people, according to court records.
Thomas was charged in Contra Costa on May 30. Three days earlier, he allegedly sent a text message to Quintin Nelson lamenting his pending legal problems but also implying he wanted to take things further.
“We talkin bout movie (expletive) let’s put our all into finding out a way to accomplish this thing,” Thomas allegedly wrote. “I’m tired of going out every night. I’m fighting 24 burglaries brother.”