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Victor Rivera, 29, and Michols Pena, 38, were identified and captured with significant help from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, said Audrey Strauss, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Strauss also thanked police from Englewood Cliffs, Weehawken and Nassau County for their assistance.
Rivera, who was captured in Miami, is accused of robbing Jonathan Cheban of a $250,000 Richard Mille watch in a private driveway on East Bayview Avenue near Sylvan Avenue (Route 9W) in Englewood Cliffs on Aug. 2.
Rivera asked what time it was before pointing a silver-colored semiautomatic handgun at Cheban, his mother and a friend, the 46-year-old Fort Lee native told police.
Rivera also participated in a June 11 robbery involving a Richard Mille watch in New York in which the victim was shot, said Audrey Strauss, the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan.
Pena, who was captured in Queens, plotted with Rivera and an unspecified number of unidentified co-conspirators to rob the expensive watches, Strauss said.
Both men are due to go before federal judges early this week – Rivera in Miami and Pena in Manhattan, she said.
Each is charged with conspiracy to commit robbery, robbery, and firearms offenses in an indictment returned in Manhattan, the U.S. attorney said.
“Thanks to the outstanding work of the special agents of our office and cooperation across multiple law enforcement agencies, the defendants now face federal charges for their crimes,” Strauss said.
“We especially want to thank the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office for its assistance in this matter,” she said.
Strauss also thanked the NYPD and Englewood Cliffs, Weehawken and Nassau County police.
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