Rapper Taliban Glizzy sentenced to 219 months in federal jewelry robbery case
Trevor Jonathan Wright, a Washington, D.C.-based rapper known professionally as Taliban Glizzy, has been sentenced to 219 months in federal prison for leading a violent, multi-state robbery conspiracy that targeted South Asian jewelry stores along the East Coast, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, Wright, 34, orchestrated a series of armed robberies that generated millions of dollars in cash and gold jewelry for a 15-member criminal crew operating between 2022 and 2023. U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper also imposed four years of supervised release following Wright’s prison term.
Wright pleaded guilty on September 16, 2025, to conspiracy to interfere with interstate commerce by robbery under the Hobbs Act, brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence, and unlawful possession of a firearm. As part of his plea agreement, he admitted responsibility for three major armed robberies, including a $1.2 million heist at Virani Jewelers in Iselin, New Jersey, a $1.93 million robbery at Paradise Jewelry in Paterson, New Jersey, and a $700,000 robbery at Kishek Jewelers in Jacksonville, Florida. He also acknowledged illegally possessing a machine gun in Miami in 2021.
Federal prosecutors said the conspiracy involved detailed planning, surveillance of targeted stores, and the use of stolen or rented vehicles, some equipped with stolen license plates, to evade law enforcement. In at least one instance, investigators said, a vehicle used in the crimes was obtained through a carjacking at gunpoint. During the robberies, crew members shattered doors and display cases with sledgehammers while armed accomplices threatened employees to force compliance.
“The defendants terrorized family-owned businesses from Northern New Jersey to South Florida,” said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro in a statement. She added that Wright and his associates left “a wake of destruction and great financial loss,” noting that Wright used proceeds from one robbery to purchase a luxury Rolex watch.
Court records state that the stolen jewelry was either fenced in Miami or melted down into gold bars and sold for cash. Wright was arrested in December 2022 outside a Miami nightclub, where authorities recovered more than $17,000 in cash linked to robbery proceeds.
The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the FBI, the Metropolitan Police Department, and the U.S. Marshals Service, among other agencies. Prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Duvall and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Sitara Witanachchi, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Several of Wright’s co-conspirators have already been sentenced, with prison terms ranging from 57 months to 228 months, while others are awaiting sentencing in related federal cases.