Carjackers Used Facebook Marketplace to Find Victims-Prosecutors Say

By Dan Gesslein 

Bronx Voice 

September 30, 2022

BRONX - Buyer beware. Federal prosecutors say two Bronx men ran a carjacking/robbery scam in which potential car buyers would be kidnapped and forced to empty their bank accounts at gunpoint. The scammers found their targets through used car ads on Facebook Marketplace, prosecutors say.

The feds hit a pair of alleged Bronx carjackers with multiple kidnapping charges as well as carjacking and robbery charges. 

US Attorney for the Southern District Damian Williams announced charges against Diante Ferandes and Mark Francis. Willams said the pair held duped car buyers at gunpoint and forced fork over cash from their ATM accounts. They also allegedly robbed the cars some of the victims arrived in. The scam ran throughout the Bronx and Yonkers, prosecutors said. 

Williams said that the suspects placed an ad for a used car on Facebook Marketplace and agreed to meet buyers at a location in Yonkers. When the buyer arrived at the meeting place, Fernandes and Francis allegedly pulled out guns and forced the victim into the car they were supposedly trying to sell.  

The pair would then drive the victims around New York City forcing them to remove cash from their bank accounts. Prosecutors said Fernandes and Francis threatened to kill their victims if they did not withdraw the cash.  

In one case, the victim was held in the car with gunmen for several hours.

The pair is said to take the victims’ cash, wallets, cell phones. They then drove away in the car the victim drove to the meeting place. 

Fernandes, 19, and Francis, 18, both of the Bronx, are charged with carjacking, Hobbs Act robbery, kidnapping, and conspiracy to commit these offenses, as well as possessing a firearm during the offenses.  

If convicted of these offenses, the defendants face a maximum sentence of life in prison.