Two brothers drove to Minnesota with guns, zip ties, and an $8M crypto exit plan 🚔

Two Texas brothers have pleaded guilty to robbing a Minnesota family of more than $8 million in cryptocurrency at gunpoint in their own home, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice. Isiah Angelo Garcia, 25, and Raymond Christian Garcia, 24, both of Waller, Texas, each pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of interference with commerce by robbery before U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery in Minneapolis. Each faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison, and the two agreed to pay more than $8 million in restitution. Sentencing dates have not been set.

Prosecutors said the brothers traveled from Texas to Minnesota specifically to carry out the scheme. On the morning of September 19, 2025, they entered a home in Grant, a small city outside Minneapolis, armed with an AR-15-style rifle and a shotgun, and held a man, his wife and their son at gunpoint for more than eight hours, according to court documents. They zip-tied the family and demanded access to the man's cryptocurrency accounts. At one point, Isiah Garcia forced the man to travel to the family's cabin in northern Minnesota to retrieve additional crypto storage devices and move the funds, prosecutors said. The family's son managed to call 911, and the brothers fled. Investigators used items the brothers left behind at the home to identify them, then tracked them to the Houston area, where they were arrested. Both admitted using firearms to threaten the family. The attack prompted a local high school to cancel a homecoming football game while police hunted the suspects.

"No one should ever feel unsafe in their own home," FBI Minneapolis Special Agent in Charge Christopher Dotson said, pledging that such "violence and greed" would be aggressively investigated. U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen said the pleas reflected a commitment to holding the brothers "accountable for the choices they made."

The case is among a fast-growing wave of so-called "wrench attacks," in which crypto holders are coerced into handing over their assets using physical force or the threat of violence. Such attacks have multiplied worldwide. Last year, Remy St. Felix received a 47-year prison sentence following his conviction by a federal jury in North Carolina for leading a violent crypto home-invasion ring — the longest sentence in any U.S. cryptocurrency case. In May, three Tennessee men were charged in a similar scheme.