A man accused of robbing a postal carrier in Arlington before committing a string of mail thefts throughout the Washington, D.C. area has been apprehended and faces many charges.
Federal authorities think Ibrahim Emmanuel De La Cruz, 25, stole a universal key during the robbery and used it to improperly access nearly a dozen mailboxes in Virginia, Washington, and Maryland.
Court documents state that the suspect would access bank accounts and activate credit cards using personal information he found in people’s mail, then use the money to pay for rent, utilities, tuition, and telephone bills for himself, his family, and his romantic relationships.
According to authorities, the initial robbery occurred along Army Navy Drive in Pentagon City in December 2023, three months before De La Cruz began explicitly targeting mailboxes in the area.
De La Cruz is suspected of stealing mail from five different residential locations in Northwest D.C. over the course of 15 days in February and March, as well as one property at 1201 S. Joyce Street in Westpost at National Landing.
Court documents suggest that De La Cruz, suspected of threatening to shoot a USPS employee during a heist, struck again in Maryland on March 21 and in Northeast D.C. on August 10.
The statement of facts filed in the case states that De La Cruz appeared in a rap music video on YouTube two years ago, the lyrics of which seem to reference the crimes he is currently facing.
De La Cruz faces five counts of mail theft and one count of armed mail robbery in US District Court for the District of Columbia. There were no scheduled arraignments as of Wednesday night.