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Malik Baker, 30, of Vauxhall, and his three co-conspirators stashed at least 10 of the vehicles at a central location in Irvington, NJ, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip Sellinger said.
The Essex County-based quartet often used one stolen vehicle to swipe another, he added.
In one instance, Sellinger said, the crew swiped a Maserati GranTurismo at the Jersey Shore in Manalapan and drove it to New City in Rockland, where they took a 2018 Range Rover and a 2019 Porsche.
A predawn police pursuit followed before the Maserati driver hit the gas and slammed the vehicle head-on into a police car. The suspects then fled in a trailing car.
Authorities wound up recovering one of the stolen cars in a Ghana-bound shipping container at Port Newark.
The list of stolen vehicles includes:
- a 2014 Lexus GS stolen from West Long Branch, NJ;
- a 2017 BMW M4 stolen from Marlton, NJ;
- a 2016 Mercedes-Maybach S600 stolen from Clifton, NJ;
- a 2017 Mercedes S550, a 2017 BMW Alpina and a 2019 Rolls Royce, all stolen from Hewlett Bay Park, NY;
- a 2019 Land Rover stolen from Kensington, NY;
- a 2019 Mercede-Maybach stolen from Quogue, NY;
- a 2017 Mercedes AMG S63 stolen from Orangeburg, NY;
- a 2019 BMW X4 M40i stolen from Greenwich, CT.
Baker had remained on the sidelines while his three cronies admitted their roles in the interstate ring.
One of them, Hakeem Smith, of Newark, was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison last April in exchange for his guilty plea. Fellow Brick City resident Nafique Goodwyn was sentenced late last month to time served. Bilal Cureton, also from Newark, will be the last of the group sentenced.
Rather than risk a jury trial, Baker pleaded guilty in federal court in Newark last Oct. 19 to conspiring to transport stolen vehicles in interstate commerce and receiving a stolen vehicle that had crossed state lines.
Baker will have to serve at least 85% -- two years and nine months -- of his sentence because there's no parole in the federal prison system. That will be followed by three years of supervised release.
Sellinger credited special agents of the FBI and the Newark Police Department with the investigation leading to the plea-bargained sentences, which were secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Amore, who heads his General Crimes Unit.
The U.S. attorney also thanked police in Irvington, Wall Township, Marlboro, Tewksbury and Clarkstown, NY, along with New Jersey State Police, Port Authority Police and the Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office.
Sellinger also cited contributions by officers with U.S. Customs and Border Protection's New York Field Office, special agents of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Newark and the Department of Commerce Office of Export Enforcement.
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