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Final Suspect In Ridgewood Cabbie Kidnapping Caught In Rockland

RIDGEWOOD, N.J. -- A purported gang member from Suffern became the last of four adults taken into custody in connection with the kidnapping and robbery of a local cab driver carjacked in Ridgewood when a SWAT team burst in and found him hiding in a closet.

Juan Chileseo-Vega

Juan Chileseo-Vega

Photo Credit: COURTESY: Suffern PD
Wilbur J. Barhona, Jostin Vidal Reyes

Wilbur J. Barhona, Jostin Vidal Reyes

Photo Credit: MUGSHOTS: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF
Guillermo Carrillo-Iraheta

Guillermo Carrillo-Iraheta

Photo Credit: MUGSHOT: Courtesy BERGEN COUNTY SHERIFF

Juan Chileseo-Vega, 19, was arrested around 9:45 p.m. Thursday after members of the Rockland County SWAT team, along with FBI agents and police from Suffern and Ridgewood, battered down a front door and found him in an upstairs apartment, Suffern Police Chief Clarke Osborn said.

Vega -- who purportedly belongs to the Central American "18th Street Gang" -- was "the last piece of the puzzle," Osborn said.

The third man wanted by authorities, 18-year-old Guillermo Carrillo-Iraheta of Suffern, Tuesday night by members of a task force comprised of federal, state, county and local authorities.

Already in custody were Jostin Vidal Reyes of Waldwick and Wilbur J. Barhona of Ridgewood, both 20, who were picked up Monday following more than a month and a half of intensive work.

All were ordered held on $400,000 bail.

The first three were in the Bergen County Jail, while Vega was in the Rockland County Jail awaiting extradition.

All are charged with various counts of robbery, aggravated assault, cajacking, kidnapping and weapons offenses.

Authorities said Reyes, Barhona and Carrillo-Iraheta got into a cab in Paterson around 3 a.m. Dec. 26 for a ride to Waldwick.

"Once they got to Ridgewood, they decided to rob him and kidnap him," village Police Chief John Ward told Daily Voice.

First they ordered the cabbie to pull over on North Monroe Street in Ridgewood, the chief said.

"The driver was ordered into the back seat of the car where the suspects held him at gunpoint telling him they were going to kill him," Suffern Police Chief Clarke Osborn said.

They eventually took him to the New York State Thruway, pistol-whipped him and stabbed him in the neck -- then dumped him in the Tuxedo area of Orange County, both chiefs said.

The multi-agency task force that cracked the cases was made up of agents from the FBI and ICE, investigators from the New Jersey State Police, New York State Police and Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, the Rockland COunty SWAT team and police from Suffern, Ridgewood, Mahwah, Hawthorne and Waldwick.

The SWAT team is comprised of officers from seven Rockland departments who used a BEAR armored vehicle during the raid.

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