47°
That didn’t please Mohammed Ranko, a 68-year-old Syrian national who’s been held in the Bergen County Jail since his initial arrest in December 2011.
“He told me ‘Please, I want to go home. I know I’m going to be deported. Let’s get this trial over’,” defense attorney Gail Hargrove had previously said.
There’s just one catch: If Ranko is convicted, he’ll face up 30 years in state prison — 25½ of which he must serve.
And that’s the minimum. It could go as high as 60 years, depending on other charges.
Authorities say Ranko hatched the kidnapping scheme from the River Street jail after being charged with blocking his boss’ son in an office of a family gas station, threatening him and vowing to kill his father.
The owner said Ranko asked to borrow $10,000 for medical treatment and turned violent when he was denied.
Hargrove countered that Ranko worked for the fellow Syrian native for 20 years and that the dispute erupted when Ranko discovered that Social Security and income tax payments that were supposed to be made on his behalf weren’t.
Now aging and in need of money, he felt cheated and was trying to get the money that was owed him, she said.
Prosecutors allege that Ranko, while behind bars, recruited a former inmate to assemble a crew to kidnap the man.
The alleged co-conspirator and his crew already bought ski masks, tape, ropes and wire to bind the victim, and found a van they were going to drag him away in when they were thwarted by Paramus police.
They also broke into an above-ground mausoleum in an Englewood cemetery where, authorities said, they intended to restrain the man until they received further orders from Ranko.
Hackensack police got wind of the plot and told their Paramus colleagues.
STORY / PHOTO: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
Click here to follow Daily Voice Hackensack and receive free news updates.
