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The news comes amid the unsealing of a 24-count burglary indictment against six defendants — most of them with ties to the Bond gang — who used a similar MO to the infamous burglary crew.
Jamelle Singletary, Lawal Erskine, INSET: Janay Cole (FILE PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia)
Bruce “Cap” Anderson, 48, of Queens was being held without bail in New York City pending extradition to New Jersey, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said.
He will be held on $500,000 bail once he arrives at the Bergen County Jail, the prosecutor said.
The Special Investigations Squad probe leading to Anderson’s arrest and the indictment began in February 2014, Molinelli said.
Several of those charged were arrested in November, he said. Anderson was picked up Tuesday.
The crew combined for more than two dozen similar burglaries over several months in Bergen, Morris and Somerset counties.
Molinelli said they operated much the same way as their Bond Gang predecessors — only without a tricked-out BMW that had hidden compartments, lights to blind pursuing police or an oil-spewing tailpipe.
The burglars “generally targeted high-end residences located in affluent neighborhoods,” the prosecutor said. “[They] were likely selected due to their size, the presence of expensive vehicles in the driveway and the appearance that the residences were unoccupied at the time of the burglary.
“[The homes] were also located in or adjacent to a cul-de-sac and attacked on weekdays in the early evening hours,” he said.
“Entry to the residences was often gained by forcing open the front doors,” Molinelli said. “Once inside the residence the burglars proceeded to the master bedrooms and removed jewelry, cash and other property.
“In most of the incidents, pillow cases were taken from the residences and used to transport the stolen property.”
As in the past, detectives continued to develop and share information with their colleagues in other jurisdictions.
They found that the bandits “would often utilize higher-end rental vehicles during the commission of the burglaries, presumably to blend into the communities they were targeting,” Molinelli said.
Just like the Bond gang, he said, the burglars sold stolen jewelry and other items to a Diamond District fence in Manhattan — David Tadjiev of Queens, who was charged along with the others.
Harrison, N.Y. police already were investigating Tadjiev in connection with receiving stolen property, the prosecutor said.
They teamed up with Molinelli’s detectives to concentrate on him — which raised another man named in the indictment, Jamelle Singletary, as a suspect.
Singletary was already known to authorities, having received probation for his role in the October 2012 theft of a 600-pound safe from Connecticut.
Also charged were his girlfriend, Janay Cole, and two other men, Jawal Erskine and Jamal Sermon.
Singletary and Cole were also charged with child endangerment following their arrests for having the drugs around their young child, Molinelli said at the time.
CLIFFVIEW PILOT broke the news last November of the men’s arrests, and was first to report Cole’s arrest. A former Englewood school lunch room attendant, she supplied Singletary with locations to burglarize as part of the break-in spree, Molinelli charged at the time.
ALSO SEE: 3 with James Bond Gang ties, jeweler fence busted by Bergen prosecutor’s strike force
ALSO SEE: Teaneck Bond Gang heirs, girlfriend accused of providing burglary addresses brought to court
Sermon, meanwhile, was one of 10 people charged in an indictment returned by a grand jury in Hackensack last year with using an Englewood flophouse as a gambling den, recording studio and marijuana stash house.
While tracking him, investigators saw Singletary get into a car with Erskine and Sermon and head from Teaneck to Someset County, where they committed two burglaries in Warren and Bridgewater, Molinelli said.
“Task force members continued to track the individuals’ vehicle as it traveled back up into Bergen County and stopped in a housing development in Englewood,” he said.
As they watched, items stolen during the break-ins were thrown into a trash bin, the prosecutor said.
The three re-emerged a short time later and drove to Queens for a meeting with Tadjiev at his home, he said.
They brought in jewelry stolen in Somerset — and detectives moved in, Molinelli said.
Search warrants at Tadjiev’s home, the dumpster and the Teaneck defendants’ homes were executed.
A handgun loaded with hollow-point bullets was found at Sermon’s home, while cocaine packaged for distribution was recovered at Singletary’s, Molinelli said.
“Detectives also recovered a safe and other personal property and documents which are believed to have been stolen during a previous residential burglary that is still under investigation,” he said.
MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR
FILE PHOTOS: CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter Mary K. Miraglia
Molinelli thanked several agencies for their roles in the case:
Harrison (New York) Police Department
Westchester County (New York) District Attorney’s Office
Bergen County Sheriff’s Office-Bureau of Criminal Investigations
Bergen County Sheriff’s Office-K-9 Division
Morris County Prosecutor’s Office
Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office
Randolph Township Police Department
Chester Township Police Department
Warren Township Police Department
Bridgewater Police Department
Englewood Police Department
Teaneck Police Department
Saddle River Police Department
Montvale Police Department
Englewood Cliffs Police Department
Tenafly Police Department
Ho-Ho-Kus Police Department
Fort Lee Police Department
Closter Police Department
Fair Lawn Police Department
Paramus Police Department
Dumont Police Department
Old Tappan Police Department
Boonton Township Police Department
East Hanover Police Department
Morris Township Police Department
Mendham Police Department
Florham Park Police Department
Chatham Police Department
Montville Police Department
Bernards Township Police Department
New York City Police Department
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