Brothers Plead Guilty in $8M Minnesota Crypto "Wrench Attack," Cops Tracked Them via Their Own Leftovers 🔐

Two Texas brothers pleaded guilty Thursday to a single count of interference with commerce by robbery after holding a Minnesota family at gunpoint and forcing the transfer of more than $8 million in cryptocurrency. Isiah Angelo Garcia, 25, and Raymond Christian Garcia, 24, both of Waller, Texas, entered the pleas before U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery in Minneapolis, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota and the Justice Department. Each faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison and has agreed to pay more than $8 million in restitution. Sentencing dates have not been set.

Prosecutors said the brothers traveled from Texas to Minnesota to carry out the scheme on the morning of September 19, 2025, when they entered a home in Grant, a small city outside Minneapolis, armed with an AR-15-style rifle and a shotgun. They zip-tied a man, his wife and their son and held the family for more than eight hours, demanding access to his cryptocurrency accounts. At one point, Isiah Garcia forced the victim to travel roughly three hours to the family's cabin in northern Minnesota to retrieve additional hardware wallets and move the funds, court documents stated. In all, the brothers forced him to transfer more than $8 million in cryptocurrency.

The family's son managed to call 911, prompting a response from Washington County sheriff's deputies. The brothers fled, but investigators used a rifle, a shotgun, surveillance footage and other items left behind at the home to connect them to the robbery, later tracking the pair to the Houston area, where they were arrested. Both defendants admitted in their guilty pleas to using firearms to threaten the victims. "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 "reflect our commitment to holding the defendants accountable for the choices they made."

The attack is among a growing wave of so-called "wrench attacks" against crypto holders worldwide. In February, CertiK reported that the number of crypto-related assaults and kidnappings rose 75% in 2025 from the previous year, and estimated that losses from such attacks in the first four months of 2026 had already reached $101 million. Last year, Remy St. Felix received a 47-year federal sentence in North Carolina for leading a violent crypto home-invasion ring — the longest in any U.S. cryptocurrency case, according to prosecutors. In May, U.S. authorities unsealed an indictment against three men accused of stealing at least $6.5 million in a "violent robbery spree targeting cryptocurrency owners," in which the defendants allegedly posed as delivery drivers to force their way into residences. France has also moved to respond, with Minister Delegate to the Interior Minister Jean-Didier Berger saying during Paris Blockchain Week in April that his office has launched a prevention platform that has drawn thousands of sign-ups. The case against the Garcia brothers remains pending sentencing.