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Police & Fire
Man Admits Luring Teens To NJ For Motel Sex: Feds Man Admits Luring Teens To NJ For Motel Sex: Feds
Man Admits Luring Teens To NJ For Motel Sex: Feds A 35-year-old New York resident admitted in federal court that he transported minors across state lines to New Jersey to have sex with him, authorities said. Berry Norman a resident of the Bronx, pled guilty to interstate travel to engage in illicit sexual conduct in federal court in Trenton on Tuesday, May 30, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said. He faces up to 30 years in prison when he is sentenced in October. In Feb. 2021, Norman invited two girls, age 14 and 15, to travel with him from Ohio to two North Bergen motels with the purpose of producing child pornography, Sellinger sa…

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by Sam Barron
Police & Fire
'FIGHT CLUB': NJ Prison Officer Who Brutalized Inmates Sentenced To 2½ Years In Federal Prison 'FIGHT CLUB': NJ Prison Officer Who Brutalized Inmates Sentenced To 2½ Years In Federal Prison
'Fight Club': NJ Prison Officer Who Brutalized Inmates Sentenced To 2½ Years In Federal Prison UPDATE: A now-former New Jersey corrections officer must spend the next 2½ years behind bars for brutalizing inmates through what one victim described as a “fight club.” John Makos, 42, of Millville, took advantage of areas in the kitchen at Bayside State Prison in Leesburg out of the view of surveillance cameras where inmates during and after their work shifts were beaten by him, colleagues and fellow prisoners, federal authorities said. In one instance Makos “watched and did not attempt to intervene when multiple inmates pinned a victim-inmate to the floor and, while the inmates restraine…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
FBI Busts Hawthorne Dad On Child Porn Charges FBI Busts Hawthorne Dad On Child Porn Charges
FBI Busts Hawthorne Dad On Child Porn Charges A 49-year-old father from Hawthorne was arrested by federal agents on child porn charges, authorities said. Edward M. O’Hagan, 49, “used one of his email accounts to send video files containing images of child sexual abuse to himself,” U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said. “He also used two email addresses to create accounts on an encrypted file storage platform that was used to upload or create files containing images of child sexual abuse,” the U.S. attorney added. A U.S. District Court judge in Newark denied O’Hagan’s release on Monday, May 22 and ordered that he remain held pending f…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Hudson Cryptothief Who Swapped Victim's SIM Card To Steal $500G Goes To Fed Pen Hudson Cryptothief Who Swapped Victim's SIM Card To Steal $500G Goes To Fed Pen
Hudson Cryptothief Who Swapped Victim's SIM Card To Steal $500G Goes To Fed Pen A 20-year-old Hudson County man must spend nearly two years in federal prison for his role in stealing more than $500,000 worth of cryptocurrency by swapping a SIM card from the victim’s phone. Ebrahem Adeeb of Bayonne must serve out just about all of the plea-bargained 21-month sentence because there’s no parole in the federal prison system. His deal with the government also requires him to pay $504,418 in restitution to his victims, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said following the sentencing on Tuesday, May 23. Adeeb and his conspirators swiped the subscriber identity module from the…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
'Wanna Meet?' Ex-Jersey Shore High School Sportswriter Takes Plea In Underage Sex Luring Case 'Wanna Meet?' Ex-Jersey Shore High School Sportswriter Takes Plea In Underage Sex Luring Case
'Wanna Meet?' Ex-Jersey Shore High School Sportswriter Takes Plea In Underage Sex Luring Case A former high school sportswriter from Ocean County admitted on Wednesday that he trafficked child porn off his cellphone and repeatedly pressed a minor to send him sexually explicit images, authorities said. Kevin Van Pelt, 33, of Lakehurst, was originally arrested in May 2019 after Gloucester County prosecutor's detectives and police in Woolwich Township said they found that he'd sought a meeting with a 14-year-old girl for sex through Snapchat and Instagram. Van Pelt, who worked part-time for NJ Advance Media – the parent company of NJ.com and the Star-Ledger – told the girl he’d been a …

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Atlantic City Councilman In Bigger Trouble Now, Charged By Feds With Voter, Unemployment Fraud Atlantic City Councilman In Bigger Trouble Now, Charged By Feds With Voter, Unemployment Fraud
Atlantic City Councilman In Bigger Trouble Now, Charged By Feds With Voter, Unemployment Fraud An Atlantic City councilman who was accused last year of assaulting his wife and endangering his daughter was busted by federal authorities for voter and unemployment fraud. MD Hossain Morshed, 49, a Democrat who represents the city’s Fourth Ward, was charged in a complaint unsealed Friday, March 17, in U.S. District Court in Camden. Morshed falsified voter registrations, lied to the FBI and filed bogus unemployment benefit claims with the state, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said. According to Sellinger, Morshed gave a prospective voter in the June 2019 primary a pre-filled voter regi…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Hudson County Man Admits Getting Kids, Dad To Send Homemade Porn That He Shared On Social Hudson County Man Admits Getting Kids, Dad To Send Homemade Porn That He Shared On Social
Hudson County Man Admits Getting Kids, Dad To Send Homemade Porn That He Shared On Social A Union City man admitted getting two underage victims and a pedophile dad in the Dominican Republic to send him homemade child porn that he then shared on social media, federal authorities said. Posing as a teenage boy, Ramon Zelaya, 36, used an Instagram account to persuade a minor to send him a "revealing" photo, then used that to "entice, threaten, and coerce" the victim into sending him sexually explicit videos and other images, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said. Zelaya also conspired with an unidentified individual in the Dominican Republic on Facebook to sexually abuse that pers…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Convicted Jersey Shore Sex Offender Who Collected 1,000 Child Porn Images Admits Grooming Girl Convicted Jersey Shore Sex Offender Who Collected 1,000 Child Porn Images Admits Grooming Girl
Convicted Jersey Shore Sex Offender Who Collected 1,000 Child Porn Images Admits Grooming Girl A convicted sex offender living in Ocean County who collected more than 1,000 child porn videos -- after convincing more than two dozen underage girls to record some of them – took a guilty plea in federal court on Wednesday, authorities said. Samuel Schwinger, a 37-year-old British national living in Lakewood, was on 10-year probation for similar offenses out of Brooklyn when he posed as an 11-year-old girl to groom another pre-teen in Oklahoma in 2019, a federal complaint says. "I'll send you a vid of what I'm wearing now and then u send me of u and then my turn again k?" Schwinger texted…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Jersey Shore Nail Salon To Pay $1,000 After Wheelchair Discrimination Incident: Feds Jersey Shore Nail Salon To Pay $1,000 After Wheelchair Discrimination Incident: Feds
Jersey Shore Nail Salon To Pay $1,000 After Wheelchair Discrimination Incident: Feds A Jersey Shore nail salon has been ordered to pay $1,000 following a discriminatory incident involving a person in a wheelchair, federal officials said. The $1,000 fine will go to the complainant, according to U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger. Under the settlement, USA Nails Inc. of Point Pleasant agrees to adopt and post in a conspicuous place a non-discrimination policy, to train current and future employees on the requirements of Title III of the ADA,  A manager at USA Nails had no comment on Friday, Feb. 10. Title III prohibits disability discrimination in places of public …

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by Jon Craig
Police & Fire
Clifton Man, 26, Federally Charged In Bloomfield Synagogue Firebombing: Police Clifton Man, 26, Federally Charged In Bloomfield Synagogue Firebombing: Police
Clifton Man, 26, Federally Charged In Bloomfield Synagogue Firebombing: Police A 26-year-old Clifton man has been federally charged with trying to firebomb an Essex County synagogue, authorities said. Nicholas Malindretos was charged by complaint with one count of attempted use of fire to damage and destroy a building used in interstate commerce in connection with the 3:20 a.m. incident Sunday, Jan. 29 at Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said. A search was under way for the man who tried to throw a Molotov cocktail through the window of a North Jersey synagogue Sunday, Jan. 29.Bloomfield PD Surveillance cameras at the synagogue rec…

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by Cecilia Levine
News
Federal Fort Lee Fentanyl Bust: Manhattan Man, 64, Could Get 10 Years Without Parole Federal Fort Lee Fentanyl Bust: Manhattan Man, 64, Could Get 10 Years Without Parole
Federal Fort Lee Fentanyl Bust: Manhattan Man, 64, Could Get 10 Years Without Parole A 64-year-old Manhattan man busted by federal Homeland Security agents for dealing nearly a pound of a drug mixture that contained fentanyl in Fort Lee took a guilty plea Tuesday rather than risk the outcome of a trial. U.S. District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo scheduled sentencing for June 21 after Jose Migel Cleto pleaded guilty in Newark on Jan. 31 to distribution and possession with the intent to distribute fentanyl, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said. Cleto could still get 10 years, which has become a federal mandatory minimum for fentanyl trafficking -- a crime that prosecutors and j…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
FRAGRANT OFFENSE: Five 'Scent-enced' In $1.3M NJ Perfume Heist FRAGRANT OFFENSE: Five 'Scent-enced' In $1.3M NJ Perfume Heist
Fragrant Offense: Five 'Scent-enced' In $1.3M NJ Perfume Heist Five men who boosted more than $1.3 million worth of perfume from a New Jersey warehouse are headed to federal prison. The Florida quintet had gotten away with two tractor-trailers full of stolen fragrances – which they transported home – then were caught when tried again in East Brunswick several months later. All five refused plea deals, went to trial in U.S. District Court in Trenton and were convicted last April of transporting stolen property in interstate commerce and conspiracy.  Sentenced on Tuesday, Jan. 10, were Carlos Duvergel, 58, of Miami Gardens, Florida, who got 33…

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by Jerry DeMarco