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Brando Mancebopujols, 24, will have to serve just about all of the plea-bargained 27-month sentence because there’s no parole in the federal prison system.
Mancebopujols, formerly of Paterson, admitted that he and his associates pocketed the money by depositing the checks into bank accounts that they controlled, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said.
As many as 40 postal boxes had been broken into in several Bergen County towns alone, authorities said at the time.
Stealing mail is a federal crime that carries a prison term of up to five years for a conviction. Fishers nonetheless have been at work throughout the country for decades.
The more common fishing tools are hardly sophisticated. Sometimes it's nothing more than a weighted line covered with reversed duct tape or rat-trap glue.
There have also been reports of bandits taping pillowcases inside the mouths of mailboxes and later carting the sacks off like Santa Claus – and even drilling into and prying open mailbox doors..
The thieves pocket any cash or alter any checks they find, then deposit the money in their own accounts. They can also retrieve information to steal identities, authorities say.
In some areas, the U.S. Postal Service has rigged mailboxes with teeth-like devices of their own aimed at foiling the fishers.
Elsewhere, police have urged citizens to go inside post offices to mail checks or money orders to thwart the fishers.
They’ve continued to warn against placing any mail in a free-standing box at night or on a holiday or weekend because it will end up sitting there awhile.
U.S. postal inspectors have worked closely with local police to identify and catch the thieves.
Mancebopujols and an accomplice were pedaling away on bicycles when they were nabbed near a local post office by Maywood Police Officer Greg Mulawka in April 2018.
They were carrying several stolen checks and a number of other pieces of mail, police said at the time.
Rather than risk the potential consequences of a conviction at trial, Mancebopujols took a deal from the government, pleading guilty to possessing stolen mail and conspiring to commit bank fraud.
In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Kevin McNulty sentenced Mancebo to five years of supervised release and ordered him to pay restitution of $106,374 and forfeiture of $2,025 during a hearing in Newark.
Sellinger credited special agents of U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Newark with the investigation leading to the plea and sentencing, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Calle of his Special Prosecutions Division in Newark.
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