45°
Juan Mendez-Lozaro and an alleged associate were captured a little over a month after last August’s incident by a strike force of federal, state, county and local officers at a North Wales, PA apartment where authorities said the fugitive was staying.
Investigators discovered a large-scale drug operation there — seizing more than five pounds of heroin, along with weighing and packaging materials — leading to charges out of Pennsylvania, as well. Mendez-Lozaro has remained held.
Surveillance photos (Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE)
As CLIFFVIEW PILOT first reported, 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 the morning of Aug. 23 when they discovered one that didn’t match its registered vehicle identification.
Mendez-Lozaro gave them consent to search the car, then quickly jumped into the unmarked police vehicle, authorities said at the time.
One of the officers tried stopping Mendez but was thrown from the blue 2005 Audi A6. Mendez then tried to run down the others, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said.
An officers also squeezed off the shot that lodged in a doorjamb as the car roared off.
Officers chased the Audi across the lower level of the George Washington Bridge into New York City before losing it.
Less than an hour later, NYPD officers were canvassing the area in and around Riverside Park with a helicopter and K9 unit after finding the car abandoned at 125th Street near Riverside Drive near Grant’s Tomb in Morningside Heights.
“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.
Authorities said Mendez-Lazaro used various aliases — among them, Eduardo Sntigo Carrasquillo, Juan Manuel Mendez, “Eddie” and “Eduardo.”
He was identified quickly, however, thanks to a phony Pennsylvania driver’s license that CLIFFVIEW PILOT learned he gave the officers.
Mendez-Lozaro’s information was entered into the National Crime Information Center as a fugitive/wanted person. Several law enforcement agencies then combined to track him down, Molinelli said.
They included:
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.
The 12-count indictment returned by the Bergen County grand jury charges him with three first-degree counts each of attempting to kill Siracuse, Cullen and Gallo; three each of injuring them while fleeing; and three of “purposely, knowingly or recklessly” injuring them while they were performing their duties.
The remaining counts involve theft of the unmarked police car and ignoring officers’ orders to stop, both of which could have caused death, injury or destruction of property, and of giving police phony ID.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Hackensack and receive free news updates.
