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Carlos Diaz and Edward Porter and an unidentified third bandit menaced customers with handguns, ordering them to lie on the floor, while robbed a Passaic bodega this past Aug. 22, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
The pair, both 30, then robbed a Passaic liquor store of several thousand dollars at gunpoint -- with Porter pistol-whipping a victim, the U.S. attorney said.
Later that night, they robbed another business, where Porter "pushed one victim and wrestled with a different victim, dragging [her] to the floor while attempting to take the victim’s handbag," he said.
Local authorities arrested Diaz and Porter on Sept. 9, sending them to the Passaic County Jail.
Federal authorities took over the case.
They took both men into custody on Tuesday, Dec. 6, charging them with conspiracy and using a firearm during a violent crime, Sellinger said.
U.S. Magistrate Judge José R. Almonte ordered them detained a short time later, he said.
Sellinger credited special agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Newark Field Division, the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office and Passaic and Paterson police with the investigation leading to the charges.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Garrett Schuman of his General Crimes Unit in Newark is handling the case.
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