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The spike in break-ins prompted Grewal’s detectives to assemble a multi-jurisdictional Burglary Task Force in October that began watching potential suspects.
Then, on Nov. 16 came the Harrington Park burglary.
Task force members quickly arrested Walter Smith, 49, of Englewood, Grewal said.
Four alleged accomplices fled, he said.
A search of the area turned up a large amount of cash and other items from the break-in, the prosecutor said.
Detectives immediately obtained arrest warrants for the four other suspects.
They found Rashad Black in Paterson on Nov. 25.
On Dec. 19, ex-con Tahref Folkes was arrested on the outstanding burglary warrant by the South Hackensack Police Department, who found him during a vehicle stop.
A warranted search of Folkes’s home on Feb. 2 as part of a separate case turned up two illegal firearms and three large capacity magazines. Folkes, who’d been released after the South Hackensack arrest, was again taken into custody.
That same day, detectives from the prosecutor’s office and FBI agents found and arrested 30-year-old Jamar Travis of Hackensack in Manhattan.
On Monday, they found Javon Barlow (photo above), also 30 of Hackensack, at an Englewood residence.
Charges against the crew include burglary, theft and money laundering.
Barlow, who also was charged with conspiracy, resisting arrest and hindering, remained held in the Bergen County Jail pending a hearing.
Black, Travis and Folkes – who was charged with possession of an assault rifle and a handgun by an ex-con, as well as possession of a large-capacity magazine -- also remained held in the county jail.
Smith was released pending a hearing.
Grewal thanked police from Englewood, Paramus, Tenafly and Saddle River, along with the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office and the Newark Field Office of the FBI.
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