I'd further add to that, that in this case the criminal was only 21 years old. To be honest it is to be expected to mess up at some point with this much pressure at that age.
Most 21 year old kids will not know enough about opsec to understand that they don't know shit about opsec. If you know a little bit you might think "if I just do X, Y, and Z I'll be safe". I suspect once you learn a bit more about the area you will quite quickly decide that it's not actually possible to get away with this kind of thing once the cops are onto you.
Applying that to this scenario: evading/postponing arrest after the cops started to look into you is luck, never giving them reason to look for/into you is what could be considered skill.
Or even more specific: it became luck as soon as it became clear that there was an admin. A lot of criminals that get caught want to be notorious however and build their "street creds".