Drizzle Fog/Mist 45°
Tag:

Department of Homeland Security Homeland Security Investigations

News
Major Trafficker Gets 14 Years, No Parole, For Shipping 40 Pounds Of Heroin From Cali To NJ Major Trafficker Gets 14 Years, No Parole, For Shipping 40 Pounds Of Heroin From Cali To NJ
Major Trafficker Gets 14 Years, No Parole, For Shipping 40 Pounds Of Heroin From Cali To NJ UPDATE: A major drug trafficker from Somerset County who flooded the New Jersey streets with major quantities of heroin -- some of it laced with deadly fentanyl -- must spend a plea-bargained 14 years in federal prison. William T. Bouza, 45, of Watchung, must serve out the entire term handed down by U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton in Newark because there's no parole in the federal prison system. The judge also sentenced him to five years of supervised release and ordered him to pay a $25,000 fine. Authorities targeted Bouza in early 2019 after intercepting 33 pounds of heroin stashed…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
News
Major Drug Trafficker Admits Shipping 40 Pounds Of Heroin From Cali To NJ On Car Carrier Major Drug Trafficker Admits Shipping 40 Pounds Of Heroin From Cali To NJ On Car Carrier
Major Drug Trafficker Admits Shipping 40 Pounds Of Heroin From Cali To NJ On Car Carrier UPDATE: A major drug trafficker from Somerset County who led investigators on a high-speed chase admitted moving massive amounts of heroin into New Jersey, federal authorities said. Authorities targeted William T. Bouza, 45, of Watchung, in early 2019 after intercepting 33 pounds of heroin stashed in a secret compartment of a Mercedes shipped on a car carrier to New Jersey from California, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said. Bouza was waiting for the drugs in Union but bolted after sensing something fishy, an indictment returned in U.S. District Court in Newark says. The following mont…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Repeat Jersey Shore Offender Admits Child Porn Possession: Feds Repeat Jersey Shore Offender Admits Child Porn Possession: Feds
Repeat Jersey Shore Offender Admits Child Porn Possession: Feds A 34-year-old repeat offender from the Jersey Shore has admitted to possessing thousands of images and videos depicting child sexual abuse, authorities said. Andrew Ramey, 34, of Brick, pleaded guilty on Tuesday by videoconference before U.S. District Judge Brian R. Martinotti to a possession of child pornography charge, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig.  According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, between March 13, 2020, and June 8, 2020, Ramey allegedly downloaded and shared material containing images of child sexual abuse,…

SHARE

by Jon Craig
News
Feds: NJ Ex-Con Who Served Time For Scamming Charities Charged With $1.35M Investor Ripoff Feds: NJ Ex-Con Who Served Time For Scamming Charities Charged With $1.35M Investor Ripoff
Feds: NJ Ex-Con Who Served Time For Scamming Charities Charged With $1.35M Investor Ripoff A compulsive gambler from Passaic County who went to federal prison for three years for ripping off organizations that benefit schoolchildren and people with life-threatening illnesses went right back to scamming after he got out, federal authorities charged. This time, Gregory Ciccone, 43, of Woodland Park orchestrated a scheme that defrauded investors of $1.35 million, much of which he used to buy a $54,330 BMW, clothes, wine and more, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Ciccone told the 22 victims that he operated companies that reserved blocks of rooms of luxury hotels that then…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
NOT GUCCI: NJ Woman Charged With Selling Loads Of Designer Knockoffs As Authentic Brands NOT GUCCI: NJ Woman Charged With Selling Loads Of Designer Knockoffs As Authentic Brands
NOT Gucci: NJ Woman Charged With Selling Loads Of Designer Knockoffs As Authentic Brands A 25-year-old Jersey Shore resident was arrested for importing knock-off designer handbags, jewelry, clothes and more, then selling them online -- marketing them as authentic brands, authorities said. A search of Courtney C. Michaels' Lakewood home on Aug. 4 turned up "numerous" Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Chanel knockoffs, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said. "The merchandise was not authentic, and was being sold at a fraction of the cost of genuine merchandise," Billhimer said. It was not clear exactly how much Michaels' profited from the sales. She was charged with counterfe…

SHARE

by Cecilia Levine
News
Feds: NJ Drug Dealer Who Led High-Speed Chase Moved 15 Kilos Of Heroin, Had $400K Cash Feds: NJ Drug Dealer Who Led High-Speed Chase Moved 15 Kilos Of Heroin, Had $400K Cash
Feds: NJ Drug Dealer Who Led High-Speed Chase Moved 15 Kilos Of Heroin, Had $400K Cash A large-scale drug trafficker from Somerset County who led investigators on a high-speed chase was dealing major quantities of heroin laced with deadly fentanyl, federal authorities said. William T. Bouza, 46, of Watchung, initially eluded police during a chase but was captured a week later, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Authorities targeted Bouza after intercepting 33 pounds of heroin stashed in a secret compartment of a Mercedes shipped to New Jersey from California on a car carrier in February 2019, authorities said. Bouza was waiting for the drugs in Union but bolted afte…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
News
NJ Neo-Nazi Admits Masterminding Nationwide ‘Kristallnacht’ Attack On Blacks, Jews NJ Neo-Nazi Admits Masterminding Nationwide ‘Kristallnacht’ Attack On Blacks, Jews
NJ Neo-Nazi Admits Masterminding Nationwide ‘Kristallnacht’ Attack On Blacks, Jews A New Jersey member of a hardcore neo-Nazi group admitted Friday that he convinced two fellow white supremacists to vandalize property owned by Blacks and Jews. Richard Tobin, 19, of Brooklawn, dubbed the nationwide campaign “Operation Kristallnacht,” after a 1938 pogrom in which German Nazis slaughtered more than 90 Jews and burned their homes, synagogues, stores and schools, Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Rachael A. Honig said. Tobin told a federal judge via video conference Friday that he “implored” two other members of “The Base” to break windows and slash tires, among other destru…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Morristown Woman Gets 18 Months In Fed Pen For Smuggling $2M In Airplane Parts To Iran Morristown Woman Gets 18 Months In Fed Pen For Smuggling $2M In Airplane Parts To Iran
Morristown Woman Gets 18 Months In Fed Pen For Smuggling $2M In Airplane Parts To Iran A Morristown woman must spend the next year and a half in federal prison for helping smuggle more than $2 million worth of aircraft parts to buyers in Iran who authorities said have ties to Hezbollah and Hammas. Joyce Eliabachus, 53, was the principal officer and operator of Edsun Equipments, a purported New Jersey-based aviation parts trading company that she ran from her home, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said. She conspired with others in “an international procurement network that surreptitiously acquired large quantities of aircraft components from United States-based manufacturers and…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Feds Bust Paterson Trio Selling 21,000 Heroin Folds Headed To Vermont Feds Bust Paterson Trio Selling 21,000 Heroin Folds Headed To Vermont
Feds Bust Paterson Trio Selling 21,000 Heroin Folds Headed To Vermont Federal agents busted a Paterson trio who they said trafficked city heroin and fentanyl to Vermont. A U.S. District Court magistrate judge ordered that Nysifah Deaveareaux, 27, and Caron J. Abrams, 26, and Shamir Williams, 25, remain in federal custody while the case proceeds. Federal agents caught Abrams with 200 bricks – more than 9,000 folds – of both heroin and fentayl during what was to be a deal in the parking lot of the Home Depot on Dayton Avenue in Passaic, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said. They learned that Williams negotiated the deals, including the transportation by Deaveare…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Feds: Teaneck Man Busted With 5,126 Fake Credit Cards, DLs From 24 States Feds: Teaneck Man Busted With 5,126 Fake Credit Cards, DLs From 24 States
Feds: Teaneck Man Busted With 5,126 Fake Credit Cards, DLs From 24 States Secret Service agents seized 4,920 counterfeit credit cards, 206 counterfeit driver’s licenses from 24 different states and a bank of forgery equipment while arresting a man who they said ran a massive ID-theft operation from his Teaneck home. A federal judge released Michael Fulcher, 35, of Teaneck on $100,000 unsecured bond during a teleconferenced U.S. District Court appearance. Teaneck police found the stash in March after Fulcher called to report a burglary in progress, authorities said. Responding officers saw “several counterfeit driver’s licenses with Fulcher’s photograph as well a…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
North Jersey Mover Who Boosted Final Bills By Up To 400% Gets 5 Years In Fed Pen North Jersey Mover Who Boosted Final Bills By Up To 400% Gets 5 Years In Fed Pen
North Jersey Mover Who Boosted Final Bills By Up To 400% Gets 5 Years In Fed Pen The leader of a North Jersey multi-moving company scam was sentenced Thursday to five years in federal prison for jacking up the final bills on estimates he’d given customers by as much as 400%. Richard Bishara, 43, a former Paramus moving company operator now living in Woodland Park, will have to serve the entire term handed down Thursday by a U.S. District Court judge in Newark: There’s no parole in the federal prison system. Bishara owned and jointly operated several companies that low-balled estimates on moving household goods before raising the price dramatically once the items were on…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Tri-State Area Tour Company Founder Indicted On Federal Child Porn Trafficking Charges Tri-State Area Tour Company Founder Indicted On Federal Child Porn Trafficking Charges
Tri-State Area Tour Company Founder Indicted On Federal Child Porn Trafficking Charges The founder of a nature tour company operating from the Jersey Shore north to Poughkeepsie and southern Connecticut was caught with 6,800 photos and 120 videos of child sexual abuse, an indictment returned by a federal grand jury alleges. Federal Homeland Security agents arrested Vaughn Tiedeman, 46, of Living Adventure Tours, in February on distributing child pornography charges. A grand jury in Newark added receiving and possession counts, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said Thursday. Between July 2018 and January 2019, Tiedeman, of West Milford, “distributed at least 50 videos …

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Ridgefield Man Who Trafficked Child Porn Gets 5 Years, No Parole, In Federal Prison Ridgefield Man Who Trafficked Child Porn Gets 5 Years, No Parole, In Federal Prison
Ridgefield Man Who Trafficked Child Porn Gets 5 Years, No Parole, In Federal Prison A Ridgefield man must spend the next five years in federal prison for collecting and distributing videos and other images of child sex abuse. Because there's no parole in the federal prison system, Malcolm Salamanca, 29, will have to serve the entire term handed down Monday by U.S. District Judge Esther Salas in Newark. Salas also sentenced Salamanca to five years of supervised release and imposed a special assessment of $10,000 under the Justice for Victims of Human Trafficking Act. He’ll also have to register as a sex offender. Salamanca admitted in August using a peer-to-peer file-shar…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Ridgefield Man, 29, Admits Trafficking Child Porn Videos, Photos Ridgefield Man, 29, Admits Trafficking Child Porn Videos, Photos
Ridgefield Man, 29, Admits Trafficking Child Porn Videos, Photos A Ridgefield man admitted in federal court Friday that he collected and distributed videos and other images of child sex abuse. Malcolm Salamanca, 29, will have to serve the entire term when he’s sentenced Dec. 2 in U.S. District Court in Newark. There no parole in the federal prison system. He’ll also have to register as a sex offender. Salamanca admitted using a peer-to-peer file-sharing program to download and share the images, some of which undercover agents with the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations took from his computer during a November 2017 raid. U…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Convicted Passaic Murderer Serving 56 Years Gets 6½ More For Running Alien Prostitution Ring Convicted Passaic Murderer Serving 56 Years Gets 6½ More For Running Alien Prostitution Ring
Convicted Passaic Murderer Serving 56 Years Gets 6½ More For Running Alien Prostitution Ring A 41-year-old Passaic convict already sentenced to 56 years in state prison for murders had a 6½-year federal term tacked on by a judge Wednesday for running a statewide prostitution ring of mostly illegal aliens -- while ordering at least three killings. Juan Fredy Hernandez-Zozaya already must spend at least 47½ years in state prison before he’ll be eligible for parole. If he lives until he’s 89 – and makes parole – he’ll then have to complete the entire 6½-year sentence handed down Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler in Newark (There’s no parole in the federal prison syst…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
NJ Corrections Officer From Lodi Admits Collecting Child Porn NJ Corrections Officer From Lodi Admits Collecting Child Porn
NJ Corrections Officer From Lodi Admits Collecting Child Porn A now-former state corrections officer from Lodi admitted in federal court in Newark on Friday that he collected images of child abuse at a time when the government said he was trying to arrange a tryst with what he thought was an 8-year-old girl. Stephen Salamak, 38, admitted using email "to seek and obtain images of child pornography, including images of prepubescent children" while working as a senior corrections officer at East Jersey State Prison in Rahway, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said. He also tried to arrange to have sex with an 8-year-old girl through a person he tho…

SHARE

by Jerry DeMarco