A 40-year-old St. Thomas barber was taken into custody Monday after federal agents at Cyril E. King Airport discovered 10 stolen iPhones that a Miami-bound passenger was attempting to transport, authorities said.
Omari E. Brathwaite, who works at Ariel's Place Barbershop, now faces a felony charge of buying, receiving, or possessing unlawfully obtained property valued at $500 or more. He appeared before Magistrate Judge Julie Smith Todman on Wednesday. The judge dismissed a grand larceny charge due to insufficient probable cause but upheld the stolen property count.
The investigation traces back to August 17, when thieves broke into the One Communications warehouse on St. Thomas. Surveillance video showed a masked figure entering through an unlocked door on the building's west side, disabling security systems, and using a company forklift to load a white 2022 Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck. The burglar also removed internal camera recording drives from the storage area. The theft netted 526 mobile devices, industrial generators, and commercial batteries totaling $441,937.34. Police found the truck abandoned and stripped on October 3 in Annas Retreat.
On November 2, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers flagged a passenger during pre-boarding screening at the airport. Secondary inspection uncovered 10 brand-new iPhones in a blue-and-white string backpack: six iPhone 16 Pro Max units priced at $1,199 each and four iPhone Air models at $1,099 each. The traveler told federal supervisors and police detectives that Brathwaite, his cousin, had given him the phones to take to Florida.
When questioned by detectives, Brathwaite said a street vendor he did not know had approached him weeks earlier with high-end electronics for sale. He claimed the vendor initially asked $200 per phone but accepted $100 each, and Brathwaite paid cash for 10 factory-boxed units. Serial numbers on the recovered devices matched One Communications inventory records.
Brathwaite reported to the Richard N. Callwood Command that afternoon and was arrested shortly before 5:00 p.m. Monday. Magistrate Judge Smith Todman set bond at $10,000 with a $1,000 cash deposit requirement. Brathwaite posted bond and was released Wednesday afternoon.
His release conditions prohibit him from leaving the St. Thomas-St. John district without court permission, require twice-weekly probation check-ins, and mandate that he keep his job at the barbershop. He must also stay at least 10 feet away from One Communications property and is barred from possessing weapons or consuming drugs and alcohol.
His formal arraignment and preliminary examination are set for Friday, November 20, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. in Courtroom MG-3 at Barbel Plaza South.
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