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The Maywood charges against Julio Ponce, 34, followed those filed by Fair Lawn and Mahwah police late last week for burglaries in their towns.
Ponce was one of five men arrested and charged earlier this year in connection with no fewer than 40 daytime residential burglaries in five counties, including Rockland, following a six-month investigation by a multi-jurisdictional task force assembled by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office.
Hundreds of recovered valuables included jewelry, electronics, antique coins, cellphones, a safe and three of seven guns stolen from a Washington Township home — in what Prosecutor John L. Molinelli called “one of the largest recoveries of stolen proceeds in recent years.”
Ponce was arrested in February along with another man, Daniel Gomez of Union City, following a burglary in Englewood’s Third Ward. The pair had been casing homes in Tenafly and Englewood, said investigators who watched them (SEE: Bergen multi-agency task force ties five to two-state, five-county burglary spree).
Ponce was originally charged with single burglaries and thefts in Englewood, Fair Lawn, Franklin Lakes and Totowa, two in River Edge and four in Fairfield, records show.
Then came additional charges out of Fair Lawn and Mahwah last Thursday, followed by Mahwah today.
Proceeds from the June 2014 break-in on Poplar Avenue included two Nikon digital cameras valued at $400, Maywood Detective Jason Liaban told CLIFFVIEW PILOT tonight.
Ponce, who used a pry tool to force in the front door, left blood behind, a sample of which was analyzed at the New Jersey State Police lab, Liaban said.
A municipal judge set $7,500 bail for the Maywood charges, boosting Ponce’s overall combined bail to $207,500.
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