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There's Copper Theft, Then There’s Nearly 2 Tons That Police In One NJ Town Say This Guy Got
A thief was caught by a Leonia police officer with 1,800 pounds of copper wire worth more than $10,000 that authorities said he stole from Con Ed job sites in Manhattan.
Victor Mejia, 38, of Leonia “appeared nervous and gave a conflicting statement” about his travels after Officer Ryan Berger stopped him on Fort Lee Road by DeGraw Avenue around 10:30 a.m. Friday, July 14, Capt. Chris Garris said.
In the back of his vehicle was “a large item under a blanket,” the captain said.
When Berger asked about it, Mejia admitted what he’d done, he said.
It's mind-boggling, really. Depending on …
Joint Custody: 1,750 Pounds Of Pot Seized, 13 Busted In Bergen Over Past Six Weeks
The fifth huge pot bust in six weeks in Bergen County boosted the overall total in that time to nearly a ton of weed, along with a baker's dozen arrests, most of them involving carriers from Queens.
Two unemployed men from New York City's largest borough were nabbed with 120 pounds of pot during a traffic stop by Narcotic Task Force detectives this past Wednesday, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said, without specifying the area.
Xian Fang Mei, 62, and Xian Wei Tang, 39, were each charged with first-degree possession with the intent to sell the drug, the prosecutor said. They were the…
Bail Reform Poster Boy Wanted On Warrants Out Of Eight North Jersey Towns Nabbed By Local PD
A serial burglar wanted on warrants out of no fewer than eight towns in four counties was captured by Maywood police and charged with a break-in at a local dry cleaner.
Nicolas G. Torres, 40, of Passaic, has been repeatedly arrested and then subsequently released under New Jersey’s 2017 bail reform law, mostly on commercial burglary charges, over the past several years, records show.
His criminal record stretches back more than a decade before that, however.
Earlier this year, Torres was linked to break-ins at businesses in Fort Lee, Leonia, Englewood Cliffs, Little Falls, Montclair, Ridg…
Secret Stash: Driver Busted, $81,000 In Drug Money Seized Near GWB, Bergen Prosecutor Says
Detectives in Bergen County arrested an out-of-state driver who they said was running drug money after they found $80,945 stashed in a secret compartment of his car.
Jose A. Rosa Vasquez, a 31-year-old Dominican National who lives in Hazelton, PA, was stopped in Leonia by investigators from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Narcotic Task Force on Monday, Oct. 3.
A search of his vehicle “revealed a sophisticated, electronically operated hidden compartment containing numerous bundles of money,” Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said Wednesday.
Rosa Vasquez was charged with money laun…
Pair Convicted Of Kidnapping Teen From Philly, Holding Him In NJ Apartment
A Leonia man and an accomplice from California were convicted of kidnapping a teenager from Philadelphia and bringing him to Bergen County, where the ringleader of their group was shot and killed during a daring and dramatic rescue by the FBI.
Eduardo Castelan-Prado, 39, of Leonia, and Jose Ochoa, 32, of Moreno Valley, CA, and their unidentified partner snatched the 17-year-old victim at gunpoint from outside the restaurant where he worked last June 14, apparently to convince his father to pay a drug debt of hundreds of thousands of dollars, authorities said.
The men brought the boy to a ga…
Detectives: NJ Woman's Killer Slipped Out, Circled Back After Daughter Woke
A Paterson gang member now charged with killing a Leonia woman in the garden apartment she shared with her daughter ran out when he heard the girl wake up, then circled back as if he was just arriving, investigators said.
Nile Diakos, 35, was recorded on phone calls and in texts admitting that he killed Alicia Arnone by stabbing her in the neck and chest last Saturday, March 26, according to court papers.
Authorities originally charged her former live-in boyfriend, Andrae Daniels of Lodi, with killing Arnone, 35.
But new information emerged that led them to drop murder charges against him…
Murder Shocker: Ex-BF Cleared, Recent Lover Charged With Stabbing Leonia Woman To Death
UPDATE: A Paterson gang member now charged with killing a Leonia woman in the garden apartment she shared with her daughter ran out when he heard the girl wake up, then circled back as if he was just arriving, investigators said.
Nile Diakos, 35, was recorded on phone calls and in texts admitting that he killed Alicia Arnone by stabbing her in the neck and chest last Saturday, March 26, according to court papers.
Authorities originally charged her former live-in boyfriend, Andrae Daniels of Lodi, with killing Arnone, 35.
But new information emerged that led them to drop murder charges aga…
Detectives: Leonia Woman's Killer Slipped Out, Then Circled Back When Daughter Woke
UPDATE: A Paterson gang member now charged with killing a Leonia woman in the garden apartment she shared with her daughter ran out when he heard the girl wake up, then circled back as if he was just arriving, investigators said.
Nile Diakos, 35, was recorded on phone calls and in texts admitting that he killed Alicia Arnone by stabbing her in the neck and chest last Saturday, March 26, according to court papers.
Authorities originally charged her former live-in boyfriend, Andrae Daniels of Lodi, with killing Arnone, 35.
But new information emerged that led them to drop murder charges aga…
Update: Ex-BF Cleared, Gang Member Charged With Stabbing Leonia Woman To Death
UPDATE: A Paterson gang member now charged with killing a Leonia woman in the garden apartment she shared with her daughter ran out when he heard the girl wake up, then circled back as if he was just arriving, investigators said.
Nile Diakos, 35, was recorded on phone calls and in texts admitting that he killed Alicia Arnone by stabbing her in the neck and chest last Saturday, March 26, according to court papers.
Authorities originally charged her former live-in boyfriend, Andrae Daniels of Lodi, with killing Arnone, 35.
But new information emerged that led them to drop murder charges aga…
Barricaded NJ Man Seized With Knives, Grenade, Young Daughter In Home
A troubled Ridgefield man was seized after barricading himself in his home with his 12-year-old daughter, authorities said.
A Bergen County Regional SWAT team joined local officers during the Maple Avenue standoff, which ended when Osvaldo Salas-Kechichian, 44, was taken into custody shortly before 11 p.m. Sunday, nearly three hours after it began, Ridgefield Deputy Chief Robert Meurer said.
His roommate had come to headquarters earlier to report that Salas-Kechichian threw his belongings outside and threatened him with a knife, Meurer said.
Salas-Kechichian, who was known to have several …
