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Authorities nab fugitive who stole Fort Lee police car, tried to run down officers

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A manhunt has ended with the arrest in Pennsylvania of a Bronx man who stole a Fort Lee police car last month, knocking down one officer and trying to mow down two others – and the discovery of a large-scale drug operation, authorities announced this afternoon.

Photo Credit: CBS New York
Photo Credit: BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE
Photo Credit: CBS New York
Jerry DeMarco
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Juan Mendez-Lozaro and an alleged associate were captured by a strike force of federal, state, county and local officers early yesterday morning in a North Wales, PA apartment where Fort Lee Police Capt. Thomas Ottina said the fugitive was hiding out.

More than five pounds of heroin was seized, “along with narcotics packaging, scales, a Kilo press, and other numerous items of evidentiary value,” Ottina said.

Yesterday morning, detectives from Fort Lee and the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Squad met with a squadron of local, county, state and federal law enforcement officers in Lower Gwynedd Township, PA, the captain said.

Surveillance photo (Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE)

Together, they hit a residence The Madison Hunt Club Apartment Complex at 7:30 a.m.

There, they arrested Mendez-Lazaro, 33, and held a man identified as Edward Gomez-Veloz for questioning, Ottina said.

Search warrants then were obtained for the apartment and three vehicles, he said. After finding the drugs and packaging materials, the captain said, authorities charged both with major drug-related offenses.

A local judge set bail for Mendez-Lazaro at $2 million.

Fort Lee Detective Timothy Cullen and Officers Deborah Siracuse and John Gallo were conducting a routine computer check of license plates in the parking lot of the Skyview Motel on Bergen Boulevard just before 9:30 a.m. Aug. 23 when they discovered one that didn’t match its registered vehicle identification, a law enforcement source told CLIFFVIEW PILOT at the time.

“The VIN number was good,” he said, “but the plate was different.”

Mendez-Lozado gave the officers consent to search the car, then quickly jumped into the unmarked police vehicle, the source said.

One of the officers tried stopping Mendez but was thrown from the black, four-door 2005 Audi A6, he said. His injuries weren’t considered serious.

Mendez then tried to run down the other officers, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said at the time.

One of the officers squeezed off the shot, hitting the vehicle’s door jamb, as Mendez-Lozado sped away, he said.

Officers chased the car across the lower level of the bridge into New York City before losing it, the prosecutor said. It was later found abandoned at 125th Street and Riverside Drive, near Grant’s Tomb in Morningside Heights (SEE PHOTO, Courtesy CBS New York ).

Courtesy CBS New York

“The officer’s duty bag/back pack containing a police department-issued raid jacket and .45-caliber ammunition were stolen from the vehicle,” Molinelli said at the time.

The car, after being returned to Hackensack, was processed for evidence by the Bergen County Sheriff’s Bureau of Criminal Identification.

Despite having various aliases, Mendez-Lazaro was identified quickly. His information was entered into the National Crime Information Center as a fugitive/wanted person, Ottina said.

“Over the course of four weeks, multiple law enforcement resources were pooled together,” the captain said. “Multiple hours of manpower were spent on attempting to locate this fugitive.”

Yesterday, it all paid off.

Mendez-Lazaro was being held in the Montgomery County Prison pending extradition to face a host of charges in New Jersey:

  • 3 counts of attempted murder on a police officer;
  • 3 counts of aggravated assault by auto;
  • 3 counts of aggravated assault on a police officer;
  • 1 count of eluding;
  • 1 count of theft;
  • 1 count of false information to a law enforcement officer;
  • 1 count of possession of marijuana under 50 grams;
  • 1 count of possession of drug paraphernalia.

 The manhunt and arrest were the result of cooperation among several agencies, Ottina said:

  • The Fort Lee Police Department Criminal Investigation Bureau;
  • The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Squad;
  • The United States Customs Agency;
  • The United States Department of Homeland Security;
  • The Philadelphia Drug Enforcement Administration;
  • The United States Marshalls Office;
  • The Lower Gwynedd Township (PA) Police Department;
  • The Montgomery Township (PA) Police Department;
  • The Montgomery County (PA) District Attorney’s Office.

 

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