A popular YouTuber and social media influencer who films himself engaging in reckless, high-speed driving in New York City has been charged in New Jersey in connection with a string of robberies, police said.
Antonio Ginestri, a 19-year-old known online as "Squeeze.benz," was charged Tuesday along with a 16-year-old who was not named due to being a juvenile, the Fairfield Police Department said.
According to police, a grey BMW X7 bearing a stolen New Jersey registration was linked to the perpetrators of a burglary at a Speedway Gas Station in Fairfield on Feb. 6. The same vehicle was linked to burglaries in Roseland, Seacaucus, and Hasbrouck Heights after leaving Fairfield that morning.
Detectives learned the same BMW and its occupants were wanted for crimes in other New Jersey towns, as well as New York and Connecticut.
Ginestri was arrested in New York City in May in an unrelated incident in which he allegedly punched a man in a deli. That investigation revealed his identity as Squeeze.benz, who had been baiting police into chases across the tri-state area for some time, but always wore a full-face helmet in his videos.
"Ginestri is a well-known social media influencer," Fairfield Police Public Information Officer Stacy Chiarolanza said in a statement Wednesday. "The basis of his channel is to film himself driving hi-end cars in a reckless manner to entice a police response while wearing a full-face helmet to hide his identity."
Police said there were three occupants in the BMW during the Fairfield burglaries, but only two have been identified and charged.
Ginestri was charged in with burglary, employing a juvenile in the commission of a crime, theft, and two counts of conspiracy in connection with the crimes committed in Fairfield. He is currently being held in New Jersey's Bergen County Jail on unrelated charges, police said.
The juvenile was also charged with burglary, theft and two counts of conspiracy.
--with reporting by TMX
