Fla. Claims Adjuster Pleads Guilty in Scheme to Rob Drug Dealers

A former Florida claims adjuster for State Farm Insurance and Berkshire Hathaway Group has pleaded guilty to participating in a brazen plan in which suspects posed as law officers and robbed alleged drug dealers in the Tampa area.

From December 2020 to April 2021, Jasmine Weber, 28, used an insurance company’s access to Lexis Nexis databases to obtain information on the targeted individuals. She then helped accomplices obtain police vests, patches, blue lights and other items used to commit the robberies, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida said Friday in a bulletin.

“While committing these offenses, the conspirators impersonated law enforcement officers by wearing black clothing, gloves, and masks—often with law enforcement insignia or vests with a ‘sheriff’ patch affixed,” the federal prosecutor’s office said. “During certain robberies, the conspirators drove a black Dodge Durango and a white Chevrolet Malibu equipped with blue lights.”

The robberies were done in Hillsborough, Pasco, Polk and Lee counties, and three of them resulted in shootings, prosecutors said.

The Florida Department of Financial Services’ licensee search page shows that Weber, of Tampa and Lakeland, was appointed with Berkshire Hathaway from 2013 to 2017; with State Farm from 2015 to 2018; and with United Services Automobile Group Association as recently as February 2022. She was an all-lines adjuster.

Weber has been charged under the federal Hobbs Act, which covers robberies that affect interstate commerce. She could face as much as 20 years in prison and fines of as much as $250,000, along with forfeiture of property, according to her plea agreement.

Others allegedly involved in the robberies and now awaiting trial include: Reginald Roberts, a/k/a/ “Rudy” (22, of Lakeland); Nathaniel Keith Carr, a/k/a “Nate” (28, of Riverdale); Daniel Jackson, a/k/a “D-Jack” (29, Winter Haven); Chrishawn De’Earl Butler, a/k/a “Baby” (22, Brooksville); and Darius Hudson, a/k/a “Toot” (43, Arcadia), prosecutors said. They were indicted on April 26, 2022.

The case began in February 2021, when sheriff’s deputies responded to two home-invasion robberies, one in Lakeland and one in Plant City at a suspected marijuana grow house, according to an arrest document filed in federal court. The robbers took cell phones, jewelry, cash and narcotics.

The FBI started investigating other home invasions, burglaries, and assaults in early 2021, and identified at least four men as possible suspects, One factor that helped identify the suspects was a white backpack that Hudson often wore at the robberies, FBI agents said in the document.