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- Texas brothers Raymond and Isiah Garcia were sentenced to a total of 326 months in prison for a home invasion robbery in September 2025. In the case, they forced a man from Minnesota to hand over over $8 million in cryptocurrency; both pleaded guilty in June.
- The brothers tied up the victim's family with tape and held them at gunpoint for over 9 hours. They even took the victim to a small cabin to retrieve a hardware wallet before escaping. They were later arrested near Houston.
- Chainalysis Records show that in early 2026, there were 46 violent incidents targeting cryptocurrency holders, with the total amount stolen exceeding 30 million US dollars.
Two brothers from Texas were sentenced to a total of 326 months in prison for a violent home invasion robbery. In the incident, they held a family in Minnesota at gunpoint for several hours and forced the father to hand over over $8 million in cryptocurrency.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Raymond Christian Garcia and Isiah Angelo Garcia from Waller in Texas were sentenced to 180 months and 186 months of imprisonment, respectively, on Thursday, which is equivalent to 15 years and 15 and a half years. The sentences were handed down by Federal District Judge Donovan Frank in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Both individuals had pleaded guilty in June.
According to court documents, the brothers traveled from Texas to Minnesota Grant, and on September 19, 2025, they broke into the victim's home, tied up the entire family with tape, held them at gunpoint for over 9 hours, and simultaneously demanded that the victims access their encrypted accounts.
When the victim was unable to transfer the amount they expected, the two men forced him to drive one of their brothers to a cabin in northern Minnesota in order to retrieve more hardware wallets and transfer the funds. In the end, they compelled the victim to transfer over 8 million dollars. After the victim's son called 911, the two men fled and were subsequently arrested near Houston.
U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen stated in a declaration: “The Garcia brothers carried out blatant and meticulously planned acts of violence against the victim and their family.” The Christopher Dotson of FBI said that these two brothers ‘violated the sacred tranquility of a family’ and that it was an act of ‘blatant violence and greed.’
This case is a clear example of what is known as “wrench attack”, where criminals do not resort to hacking attacks but use violent means to seize cryptocurrencies.
As the prices of cryptocurrencies rise, such attacks are also on the increase: According to Chainalysis, 46 violent incidents occurred in the first half of 2026, with stolen amounts exceeding 30 million US dollars, while CertiK provides an even higher estimate of losses. Recent cases include a kidnapping in France where the victim's child was held hostage, as well as a burglary in the UK where the attackers were ultimately sentenced to prison.
This sentencing is one of the clearest signals to date, indicating that U.S. courts are now treating wrench and attack related to cryptocurrencies as serious violent crimes.
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