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Hope “The Lady” Kantete, 43, bought stolen cars from gang members and others, had them re-tagged, then shipped them to customers overseas, a federal indictment alleged.
She was convicted after a three-week trial of 10 counts of transportation of stolen vehicles in interstate or foreign commerce and a single count of conspiracy to transport stolen vehicles in interstate or foreign commerce.
U.S. District Judge Robert J. Kugler revoked her bail and set an Oct. 3 sentencing date.
Kantate was among nearly a dozen defendants — several from Hudson County — who were arrested by federal agents in a May of last year. A twelfth was already serving time in state prison for another crime.
The stolen or carjacked vehicles were shipped from Ports Newark and Elizabeth to various West African destinations, including Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Gambia. These included include Mercedes’ GL550, S550 and ML 350, as well as Honda CRVs, Acuras and Land Rovers.
Kantete “was the driving force behind this illegal enterprise,” Assistant U.S. Attorney James M. Donnelly told jurors during the trial.
Defense attorney Brian Neary characterized Kantate’s co-defendants as criminals who tried to “to entrap her and ensnare her in their world” after she came to the U.S. from Africa with the “hopes and dreams” of most immigrants and built a successful, legitimate used-car business in Jersey City.
It took a confidential informant who already was dealing with Kantate and others accused in the ring to give federal agents the break they needed, according to federal records.
As investigators listened in, the cooperator bought vehicles that were either stolen or hijacked. One shipment included three from Bergen County worth a combined $149,000, a complaint filed is U.S. District Court in Newark said.
Neary, however, said his client was “duped” by coooperators “in the same way” that he said they fooled jurors with their testimony against her.
“You would not buy a used car from any of these government witnesses,” he said.
Donnelly, meanwhile, laid out the organizational structure:
Layer One – People who steal or carjack vehicles. Many are gang members.
Layer Two – Fences who buy and sell vehicles for a few thousand dollars, even if they’re brand-new luxury cars worth ten times more, and “runner” who move the vehicles and collect payments.
Layer Three – People who retag the vehicles by replacing existing VINs (Vehicle Identification Numbers), usually in parking lots, garages or on the street. Counterfeit titles are then produced to match the new VIN.
Layer Four – Customers. Some put in orders, telling the fences what type of vehicles they’re looking for. They often re-sell them.
Layer Five – Operation coordinators.
Vehicles are shipped abroad through a Non-Vessel Operating Common Carrier (NVOCC), a company licensed by the Federal Maritime Commission, bonded and insured for purposes of exporting goods in foreign commerce. The NVOCC leases containers and guarantees space on vessels operated by major shipping carriers who do business only with bonded and insured companies.
“Because NVOCCs require documentation from persons shipping vehicles, customers typically use a middle person to conduct the transaction in an attempt to insulate themselves. Customers alternatively present fraudulent documentation to conceal the true information about the vehicles being exported overseas, such as altered Certificates of Title,” the government wrote in a release.
Handling the case along with Donnelly was Assistant U.S. Attorney José R. Almonte and Senior Litigation Counsel Serina M. Vash of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark.
U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman praised special agents of Homeland Security Intelligence and N.J. State Police and thanked Customs and Border Protection, the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray, Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan, former prosecutors Edward DeFazio of Hudson and Theodore Romankow of Union, as well as the Essex and Hudson County Sheriff’s Departments, the Newark Police Department, Coast Guard Investigative Service and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
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