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“Patient and painstaking work” by Detectives Jon Rynander and Frank O’Brien, assisted by Detective David Blum, led to charges against Carlos J. Sanchez and James A. Lanier, both 23 of Newark, Capt. Mark McCombs said on Jan. 6.
Sanchez and Lanier were originally arrested during a November takedown by New Jersey State Police of a ring that stole more than 30 vehicles – including BMWs and Land Rovers – that they said were worth millions.
Although that investigation was centered in Monmouth County, authorities said the crew has been active in Bergen, Essex, Union, Middlesex, Mercer, Somerset, Ocean, Burlington and Hunterdon counties, as well as in New York State.
The ring’s MO has been to often target residences while victims were home. Most late-model vehicles that were taken have been given bogus VIN numbers before being retitled and sold online, authorities in South Jersey said.
The charges out of Franklin Lakes stem from break-ins of mostly vehicles but also of a home, said McCombs, the police captain.
They occurred on several local streets, he said – among them, Arrow Lane, Algonquin Road, Hampton Hill Road, Dogwood Trail, Pueblo Drive, Forsythia Court, Silent Nest Way, Vermeulen Place, Northwood Drive and Jane Drive.
Judges have kept Sanchez and Lanier in the Monmouth County Jail since their arrests in late November. Prosecutors during a recent court hearing in Freehold told a judge that Sanchez had prior adult and juvenile convictions and had served time for gun possession.
Both men will be brought to Bergen County for first appearances on significant charges out of Franklin Lakes, as well – primarily, being the leaders of an auto theft trafficking network, McCombs said.
They’re also charged with 11 counts of vehicle and/or residential burglary and one count tied to the theft of a vehicle itself.
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