Insets, from left: Tijhani Brown, Rasambessa Johnson and Jamouri Sawyer (Miami-Dade Corrections). Background: Airbnb rental used as drug house robbed at gunpoint.
Cops investigating a home invasion at a Florida Airbnb stumbled upon a drug house with more than 100 pounds of marijuana and nearly $30,000 in cash, according to police.
Now the two people renting the Airbnb in Miami are facing criminal charges along with the three men who robbed them, court records say. The renters, 33-year-old Robert Rincon and 43-year-old Johnny Guzman, are facing charges of attempted cannabis trafficking, owning/renting a home to traffic controlled substances and money laundering. They have since bonded out of jail.
The alleged robbers, Tijhani Brown, 22, Rasambessa Johnson, 23, and Jamouri Sawyer, 28, are facing armed robbery, burglary with assault and kidnapping charges. They remain in the Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Local NBC affiliate WTVJ obtained arrest affidavits that lay out the series of events.
The robbery reportedly occurred around 12:45 a.m. Thursday at a home near Southwest 5th Street and Southwest 58th Street. The owner of the home reportedly saw the renters being robbed over the surveillance system and called police. When cops arrived, they found two men who reportedly said they were victims of an armed robbery. But when officers searched the home, they found no robbers but a “huge amount” of drugs, prosecutors said.
Per the affidavits, cops reportedly found 113 pounds of cannabis in vacuum-sealed trash bags and $29,850 in cash.
“One hundred thirteen pounds of cannabis sounds like a huge amount that it would be one of those things where if it is physically in the same building as you in your Airbnb it is not the kind of thing you’re going to miss,” a prosecutor said at Rincon’s first appearance.
Cops reportedly found the robbery suspects nearby with $11,000 in cash and took them into custody. Officers also found several pounds of drugs in the route that the robbers took from the house, the affidavit reportedly said.
A judge had some harsh words for Sawyer at his first appearance.
“I don’t know what’s going on in your life or what’s went on, but start thinking for you,” she said. “Because all of your mom and your girlfriend and your family’s tears and pain is not going to help you. The only person that can help yourself is you.”
A representative from Airbnb did not immediately return an email for comment.
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