4 arrested, including teen, in robberies targeting sellers on Facebook, MDSO says

Four people, including a minor, were arrested in connection to more than a dozen robberies and grand thefts targeting sellers on online platforms including Facebook Marketplace, according to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office.

Authorities said that between October 2025 and May 2026, investigators identified 11 robberies and six grand thefts in the Intracoastal District, primarily near Northwest 6th Avenue and Northwest 152nd Street.

Four subjects allegedly targeted people “selling cell phones and laptops, arranging meetings under the guise of purchasing items before stealing the property and fleeing,” officials said.

Terrell Barry, 20, is charged with armed robbery with a firearm or deadly weapon. An arrest report states that back in April, Barry took a phone from a prospective seller he met on Facebook Marketplace, lifted his shirt to show a gun in his waistband, and then threatened to kill the victim if he followed.

A 17-year-old is charged with strong arm robbery after he posed as a buyer in February on the same platform and “forcefully removed” a victim’s phone from his hand before fleeing on foot, police said. NBC6 does not name minors accused in a crime unless they are charged as adults.

Adrion Hall, 22, is charged with third-degree grand theft. He’s accused of taking a victim’s $800 iPhone 16 and running away in January. According to an arrest report, detectives determined that Hall’s “phone number had been used to create one of the Facebook profiles used in relation to the thefts and robberies.” Then, he was picked out of a line up by the victim.

Barry, Hall and the teen suspect were arrested in a sting operation on Tuesday, when officials set up the purchase of a phone on Facebook Marketplace. Hall denied being involved and said the other two suspects used his phone to run the Facebook accounts and commit the thefts, according to an arrest report.

Nikell Etienne, 23, is charged with strongarm robbery, burglary with assault or battery and attempted strongarm robbery after he allegedly stole a man’s phone while the victim and his son were trying to sell other property in October 2025. According to an arrest report, the victims had agreed to meet with Etienne and others, but when they were negotiating payment, the suspects allegedly became “irate… and proceeded to demand the property.”

One of the victims was able to take a photo of Etienne and text it to his wife, police said, but he and others confronted him, struggled over the phone, took it and ran away.

Etienne was arrested by Hialeah Police in an unrelated case in December 2025.

The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office encourages the public to use caution when conducting online marketplace transactions and to use designated safe exchange zones or law enforcement facilities to make the exchanges.

Anyone with additional information should contact Crimestoppers at 305-471-TIPS.