usual suspects

Meaning

Noun

• The people, often scapegoats, routinely arrested in response to a crime.
• The people or things that would be routinely expected to appear in a particular context.

Origin

• The phrase was commonly used in New York in the 1930s, by both criminals and law enforcement, often with regard to baseless arrests. The phrase was popularized more broadly by its appearance in the 1942 film Casablanca, especially since the 1990s.