Canada's Jordan Saccucci, the winner of the 2022 European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague main event, has been arrested in connection with a string of residential break-ins throughout the greater Toronto, Ontario area.
Saccucci, now 33, and another suspect in the spree, Dumark Lindsay, were both arrested in suburban Oakville by the Halton Regional Police. Both Saccucci and Lindsay, 41, are residents of nearby Mississauga, and both men had been fugitives for several days after authorities raided the residents of four suspects in the break-in spree last week.
Saccucci and Lindsay have been charged with 68 offenses largely falling within the "break and enter" category. The pair were being held in nearby Milton pending a bail hearing. The Halton police also recovered the Chevrolet Tahoe RST believed connected to the break-ins that was pictured in a press statement last week, as part of the Halton police's call for public assistance in locating the suspects. According to an updated statement, the Tahoe RST was found with fake license plates and was a stolen vehicle.
Last Thursday, Halton Regional Police arrested a third suspect in the case, 36-year-old Paul Nkrumah. The fourth suspect in the spree, 37-year-old Marcel Blackburn, remains at large.
Rapid fall from EPT fame for Saccucci
It's been less than a year since Saccucci visited the Czech Republic and took down the EPT Prague main event. The €5,300 tourney was the largest main event in EPT Prague history and its 1,267 total entries built a record prize pool of €6,144,950.
Saccucci claimed the win after a heads-up deal with French star Antoine Saout, who settled for an even €800,000 as the runner-up. For Saccucci, who collected €913,250 (about US $962,126), it was a career best cash by a wide margin. The win accounts for over 70% of Saccucci's total live-event poker earnings, which to date, according to The Hendon Mob, are US $1,366,385. Saccucci's best previous poker score was a fourth-place finish at the 2016 WPT Fallsview Classic worth US $71,395.
Prior break-in crimes in Saccucci's past
Sadly, the huge EPT score appears not to have altered Saccucci's previous life behavior if he is indeed guilty as charged. In March of 2021, Saccucci was one of ten individuals arrested in connection with another lengthy break-in spree in 2020 and 2021 that spread across the greater Toronto area.
In that matter, Saccucci was charged with conspiracy to commit, committing to break and enter (three counts), disguise with intent (to commit crime) (two counts), and possession of property obtained by crime. Nkrumah and Lindsay, two of Saccucci's alleged accomplices in the current cases, were also among those arrested in the 2021 spree.
Another report focusing on the March 2021 arrests alleged Saccucci, Nkrumah, and Lindsay also previously worked as a criminal team. The three, along with a fourth man, Darnyl Campbell, were all charged with breaking and entering, possession of stolen property, possession of a firearm obtained by crime (three counts), possession of an unloaded regulated firearm with readily accessible ammunition (two counts), occupying a motor vehicle with a firearm (three counts), and contravention of Firearms Act regulations (three counts). Saccucci was also charged with four counts of possession of a firearm while prohibited.
Saccucci's involvement with daytime residential break-ins appears to stretch at least back to 2015. In August of that year, the Toronto Sun reported that Saccucci and three others faced 67 charges in connection with another 38 break-ins across the greater Toronto area. The report stated that Saccucci and the other three men -- none of whom were among the others arrested in connection with the recent spree -- were suspected members of the "Get Money Committee" a crime-oriented group.
Investigators asserted at the time that the group's members often arranged for much of the gold jewelry to be melted down almost immediately, to be made into medallions inscribed "GMC", which the group's members wore.
Featured image source: Halton Regional Police
