Bozos who staged NYC car crashes for insurance fraud scheme heading to prison thanks to viral video: DA

These fraudsters crashed and burned.A crew of bozos targeted unsuspecting drivers in a series of staged crashes on busy Big Apple highways — scoring more than $80,000 in insurance payouts before a viral video brought the fraud ring down.Jaime Huiracocha, 53, and Victor Murillo, 34, will respectively serve at least one year and two years in prison after pleading guilty to insurance fraud charges, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Thursday.Katz credited the TikTok clip — of a Honda Civic brazenly backing into another vehicle on the Belt Parkway after a near-miss collision — shown to her by her 15-year-old son with jumpstarting the investigation that uncovered three crashes staged by Huiracocha and Murillo.“This original video, which happened to have been the third incident, not the first, was really key in us identifying, investigating and making sure we had the right people,” she told reporters.“We worked backwards from that viral video.”The dunderheads, both of Brooklyn, hatched a plan in which Murillo was behind the wheel and suddenly stepped on the brakes — causing vehicles behind him to rear-end his ride, prosecutors said.Huiracocha would trail behind in a separate vehicle, communicating with Murillo on when and how to stage the collisions, according to prosecutors.After each crash, Murillo would climb into a different seat — as passengers involved in the scheme covered the rear window with plastic bags to hide him, officials said.He’d then slip into a getaway vehicle as his fellow fraudsters pretended to be injured, with dashcam footage even showing the dolts holding the side of their heads in pretend agony, prosecutors said.The calculated crashes began Aug.24, 2024, when Murillo, driving a Honda Civic, merged in front of a 47-year-old woman on the Belt Parkway, the DA’s office said.Dashcam video from the woman’s car shows the Honda braking out of the blue, and four men getting out, including Murillo.The goons later receiv...