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Police & Fire
Multitude Of Government Agencies Victimized Out Of $4M By NJ Man: Feds Multitude Of Government Agencies Victimized Out Of $4M By NJ Man: Feds
Multitude Of Government Agencies Victimized Out Of $4M By NJ Man: Feds A New Jersey man stole more than $4 million through a clutch of schemes that included defrauding three different government programs, authorities charged. Gbenga Akinbode, 33, of Newark, opened a bank account and then used 120 different debit cards to buy $500,000 worth of money orders that were deposited into the account, according to a complaint filed by Homeland Security Investigations in U.S. District Court in Newark. Investigators discovered that the debit cards were funded with $4 million in fraudulently obtained unemployment insurance benefits, bogus Paycheck Protection Program loans…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Delaware Man Admits Peddling Heroin In NJ: Feds Delaware Man Admits Peddling Heroin In NJ: Feds
Delaware Man Admits Peddling Heroin In NJ: Feds A Delaware man admitted in federal court that he sold heroin in New Jersey, authorities said. Carl L. Jones, 49, of Newport, did business with "a confidential source who was working with law enforcement" in a commercial parking lot in Mount Laurel on March 29, 2019, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said. According to Sellinger, Jones sold the informant a pound and a half of a a "mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of heroin." Jones took a deal from the government rather than risk the potential consequences of a guilty verdict at a trial, pleading to drug po…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Cash Seized, Passaic County Massage Parlor Pair Charged In Multi-Agency Raid Cash Seized, Passaic County Massage Parlor Pair Charged In Multi-Agency Raid
Cash Seized, Passaic County Massage Parlor Pair Charged In Multi-Agency Raid Two women were arrested and $11,652 in alleged profits seized in a multi-agency raid on a Woodland Park massage parlor that authorities said was really a cathouse. Detectives from the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Special Victims Unit, police from Woodland Park and federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations teamed up for the bust late last week at Tokyo Foot Spa on Great Notch Road right off Route 46. The agencies had “received information that [the spa] was offering commercial sexual services while operating under the pretense of being a massage therapy business,” Passaic County Pr…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Federal Agents Seize Sussex County Man In Online Child Porn Sting Federal Agents Seize Sussex County Man In Online Child Porn Sting
Federal Agents Seize Sussex County Man In Online Child Porn Sting U.S. Homeland Security agents seized a Sussex County man who they said shared hundreds of child pornography videos and still images with an undercover investigator. Gaetano Lapegna, 64, was arrested after a warranted search of his Franklin home turned up two videos and 100 other images, Homeland Security Investigations' Newark Special-Agent-In-Charge Ricky J. Patel and U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said in a joint announcement. A federal magistrate judge in Newark released Lapegna, formerly of Maine, on $100,000 unsecured bond pending trial on distribution of child pornog…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Feds: Hudsonite Nabbed Accepting Mail-Order Fentanyl From Mexico Pleads Out Feds: Hudsonite Nabbed Accepting Mail-Order Fentanyl From Mexico Pleads Out
Feds: Hudsonite Nabbed Accepting Mail-Order Fentanyl From Mexico Pleads Out A Hudson County man admitted accepting mail-order fentanyl destined for New Jersey’s streets that shipped to his home from Mexico, federal authorities said. Miguel Polanco, 31, even watched a how-to video on how to handle the shipment, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said following a plea hearing in Newark on Wednesday, Feb. 15. Polanco became the focus of an investigation after U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents intercepted the package from Mexico City on its way to his Union City apartment, Sellinger said. He had previously received a video from a conspirator “exp…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
NJ Man Admits Hiring Hitman To Kill Teen He Shared Sexual Photos With Online: Feds NJ Man Admits Hiring Hitman To Kill Teen He Shared Sexual Photos With Online: Feds
NJ Man Admits Hiring Hitman To Kill Teen He Shared Sexual Photos With Online: Feds A Camden County man who shared sexually explicit photos with a 14-year-old child online admitted to paying $20,000 in bitcoin to have the child killed, authorities said. John Michael Musbach, 31, of Haddonfield, pleaded guilt to an indictment charging him with knowingly and intentionally using and causing another to use a facility of interstate and foreign commerce, that is the internet, with the intent that a murder be committed, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said. In the summer of 2015, Musbach reportedly exchanged sexually explicit photographs and videos with the victim, a …

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by Jon Craig
News
NJ Celebrity Hairstylist Charged With Trafficking Child Porn, Worked On 'Mrs. Maisel,' More NJ Celebrity Hairstylist Charged With Trafficking Child Porn, Worked On 'Mrs. Maisel,' More
NJ Celebrity Hairstylist Charged With Trafficking Child Porn, Worked On 'Mrs. Maisel,' More A Bergen County hairstylist to the stars is charged with trafficking more than 450 child sex abuse images, authorities said. Daniel Koye, 40, of Rutherford, was seized by Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents on Jan. 28 in Atlanta after detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office obtained a warrant for his arrest, they said. He's been held since then in the Clayton County Jail in Jonesboro, GA pending extradition to New Jersey, records show. Authorities began looking for Koye following a warranted search at his Ettrick Terrace apartme…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Human Trafficking: US Homeland Security Investigations, NJSP, Others Cite New Enforcement Tools Human Trafficking: US Homeland Security Investigations, NJSP, Others Cite New Enforcement Tools
Human Trafficking: US Homeland Security Investigations, Njsp, Others Cite New Enforcement Tools New ways of targeting and stopping human trafficking will be discussed by an elite group of federal, state and local law enforcement authorities in Newark on Wednesday, Jan. 25. U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Phillip R. Sellinger, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Newark Special Agent In Charge Ricky J. Patel and Ali Boak, the director of the Global Center on Human Trafficking, will be among the speakers at the unique news media event. They will discuss joint efforts at fighting human trafficking by giving law enforcement at all levels the necessary tools – including a new mobile app and…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Feds: Paterson Man Admits Getting Girl, 11, To Send Him Sexually Explicit Photos Feds: Paterson Man Admits Getting Girl, 11, To Send Him Sexually Explicit Photos
Feds: Paterson Man Admits Getting Girl, 11, To Send Him Sexually Explicit Photos A Paterson man admitted posting a graphic video of a child being sexually assaulted and then convincing an 11-year-old girl to send him naked photos of herself, authorities said Friday. Jose Minaya, 27, “used a web-based application to engage an 11-year-old child in a sexually explicit conversation online [and] ultimately instructed the child to take sexually explicit photographs and send them to him,” U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said on Jan. 6. This came after Minaya used another web-based application to “upload an unrelated video depicting the graphic sexual assault of a child to th…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Repeat Child Porn Collector From Atlantic City Gets 11 Mandatory Years Repeat Child Porn Collector From Atlantic City Gets 11 Mandatory Years
Repeat Child Porn Collector From Atlantic City Gets 11 Mandatory Years UPDATE: A previously-convicted child porn collector from Atlantic City was sentenced Thursday to more than 11 years in federal prison -- without parole -- for doing it again, authorities said. Cory Newman, a 46-year-old former U.S. Navy petty officer, must serve out just about all of the sentence handed down on Jan. 5 because there’s no parole in the federal prison system. Newman had previously spent more than four years behind bars following a 2007 conviction on similar charges when he showed up on law enforcement radar once again, authorities said. Agents of Homeland Security Invest…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Dealer Admits Role In Major Ring That Moved Fentanyl, Meth, Coke By The Pound Into NJ From NYC Dealer Admits Role In Major Ring That Moved Fentanyl, Meth, Coke By The Pound Into NJ From NYC
Dealer Admits Role In Major Ring That Moved Fentanyl, Meth, Coke By The Pound Into NJ From NYC One of three Manhattan men accused of flooding four North Jersey counties with massive quantities of fentanyl, meth and coke admitted his role in the organization, authorities said. Juan Carlos Merced Moreno, 45, and his partners operated a fentanyl mill in Washington Heights that supplied traffickers in New Jersey with at least 25,000 pills that were distributed throughout the Garden State, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said. And that wasn't all. Authorities discovered the operation during what began as an investigation into the Hudson County crew, which flooded the str…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Tri-State Tour Company Founder Gets 7 Years, No Parole, In Child Porn Case Tri-State Tour Company Founder Gets 7 Years, No Parole, In Child Porn Case
Tri-State Tour Company Founder Gets 7 Years, No Parole, In Child Porn Case A tri-state nature tour company founder from North Jersey was sentenced to a plea-bargained seven years in federal prison for collecting hundreds of child porn images. Vaughn Tiedeman -- whose Living Adventure Tours operates in the Garden State, New York and Pennsylvania -- must serve out the entire term because there's no parole in the federal prison system. He'll also remain under supervised release for 10 years under the sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton in Newark on Thursday, Sept. 21. Special agents of the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Inv…

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by Jerry DeMarco