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Ring Member Convicted In $565,091 IRS Scam That Sent Refund Checks To Same NJ Town Ring Member Convicted In $565,091 IRS Scam That Sent Refund Checks To Same NJ Town
Ring Member Convicted In $565,091 IRS Scam That Sent Refund Checks To Same NJ Town A New Jersey woman was convicted of participating in a massive ID theft scheme that had $565,091 in tax refunds from the IRS sent to a small section of the same town. Awilda Henriquez, 35, took her chances with a trial after three of her accomplices took guilty pleas. She was found guilty in U.S. District Court in Camden on Thursday of 27 counts involving defrauding the federal government, mail theft, stealing government money and aggravated ID theft, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Ring members filed more than 3,300 tax returns in 2013 using the names and Social Security numbe…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Jersey City Man Gets 27 Months In Fed Pen For $450,000 Phony Passport Bank Fraud Scheme Jersey City Man Gets 27 Months In Fed Pen For $450,000 Phony Passport Bank Fraud Scheme
Jersey City Man Gets 27 Months In Fed Pen For $450,000 Phony Passport Bank Fraud Scheme A Jersey City man must spend more than two years in federal prison for his role in a ring that used bogus passports and IRS refund checks to pocket more than $450,000. Mamadou Diallo, 44, also must pay $150,052 in restitution as part his plea deal with the government, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. For 6½ years, beginning in 2012, Diallo admitted, he and others stuck photos of themselves to passports bearing others’ names. They then used the bogus IDs to open bank accounts into which they deposited phony IRS refund checks. They withdrew the funds from ATM and teller termi…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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NJ Founder Of Tri-State Nature Tour Company Takes Guilty Plea In Child Porn Case NJ Founder Of Tri-State Nature Tour Company Takes Guilty Plea In Child Porn Case
NJ Founder Of Tri-State Nature Tour Company Takes Guilty Plea In Child Porn Case The North Jersey founder of a tri-state nature tour company admitted Wednesday that he collected hundreds of child porn images, federal authorities said. Vaughn Tiedeman, 48, of Living Adventure Tours in Sussex County, was arrested by federal Homeland Security agents on child porn trafficking charges in early 2019. Between July 2018 and January 2019, the West Milford resident “downloaded and possessed more than 600 images of child sexual abuse, including images of young children and depictions of violence,” Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Rachael Honig said. Rather than risk conviction…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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MS-13 Members Convicted Of Murder Of Innocent West New York Man, 19, Other Gang-Related Crimes MS-13 Members Convicted Of Murder Of Innocent West New York Man, 19, Other Gang-Related Crimes
MS-13 Members Convicted Of Murder Of Innocent West New York Man, 19, Other Gang-Related Crimes Three ranking MS-13 members from El Salvador were convicted by federal jurors in Newark of the murder of an innocent 19-year-old dishwasher from West New York, among other charges stemming from their participation in the international gang. It was one of many offenses that jurors agreed were committed by Juan Pablo “Humilde” Escalante-Melgar, 31, Elmer “Locote” Cruz-Diaz, 33, and Oscar “Snappy” Sanchez-Aguilar, 25 – among them, extortion, witness tampering, and drug trafficking. Federal prosecutors told the jurors that Escalante-Melgar and Sanchez-Aguilar instructed an MS-13 member and an …

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by Jerry DeMarco
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NJ Neo-Nazi Gets Year, Day For Masterminding Nationwide ‘Kristallnacht’ Attack On Blacks, Jews NJ Neo-Nazi Gets Year, Day For Masterminding Nationwide ‘Kristallnacht’ Attack On Blacks, Jews
NJ Neo-Nazi Gets Year, Day For Masterminding Nationwide ‘Kristallnacht’ Attack On Blacks, Jews A New Jersey member of a hardcore neo-Nazi group was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison on Tuesday for convincing two fellow white supremacists to vandalize property owned by Blacks and Jews. Richard Tobin, 20, dubbed the nationwide campaign “Operation Kristallnacht,” after a 1938 pogrom in which German Nazis slaughtered more than 90 Jews and burned their homes, synagogues, stores and schools, Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Rachael A. Honig said. Tobin “encouraged hateful acts of violence against individuals and their houses of worship, based on their religion or the color…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Feds: NJ Mail Carrier Picked Up, Delivered Drugs For Years Feds: NJ Mail Carrier Picked Up, Delivered Drugs For Years
Feds: NJ Mail Carrier Picked Up, Delivered Drugs For Years A New Jersey mail carrier took bribes for five years to help people use the U.S. Postal Service to ship coke, pot and other contraband through the mail. Emerson Pavilus, 46, of Union was working for the post office in Flanders when he took the payoffs, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. “Among other things, Pavilus provided his conspirators with addresses in Flanders to which parcels could be shipped, intercepted those parcels from the mail stream, and personally delivered those parcels to conspirators at addresses other than those listed on the parcels,” Honig said. Pavilus was n…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Feds: NJ Mail Carrier Picked Up, Delivered Drugs For Years Feds: NJ Mail Carrier Picked Up, Delivered Drugs For Years
Feds: NJ Mail Carrier Picked Up, Delivered Drugs For Years A New Jersey mail carrier took bribes for five years to help people use the U.S. Postal Service to ship coke, pot and other contraband through the mail. Emerson Pavilus, 46, of Union was working for the post office in Flanders when he took the payoffs, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. “Among other things, Pavilus provided his conspirators with addresses in Flanders to which parcels could be shipped, intercepted those parcels from the mail stream, and personally delivered those parcels to conspirators at addresses other than those listed on the parcels,” Honig said. Pavilus was n…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Feds: Ex-Con Shot Two Victims Five Days Apart In Newark Feds: Ex-Con Shot Two Victims Five Days Apart In Newark
Feds: Ex-Con Shot Two Victims Five Days Apart In Newark Surveillance video shows one of two shootings that federal authorities say were committed by a Newark ex-con who was caught with a loaded gun and 626 heroin folds. The victims were shot five days apart last August by Antoine Hawkins, a 31-year-old repeat offender with an extensive criminal record, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Police nabbed Hawkins a month later and found him carrying a 9mm Springfield Armory XDM pistol loaded with 19 rounds, the U.S. attorney said. A warranted search of his home turned up the heroin, as well as three 9mm magazines, she said. Hawkins, who ha…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
NY-Bound Drug Traffickers Busted In PA With $4M In Cocaine, Heroin, Fentanyl, Authorities Say NY-Bound Drug Traffickers Busted In PA With $4M In Cocaine, Heroin, Fentanyl, Authorities Say
Ny-bound Drug Traffickers Busted In PA With $4M In Cocaine, Heroin, Fentanyl, Authorities Say A routine traffic stop led by a keen-eyed Bedminster Township patrol officer seized nearly $4 million worth of cocaine, heroin and fentanyl from a couple "passing through" during a cross-country drug trafficking operation, authorities said. Christian Ochoa, 28, of Laredo, Texas, was driving the drugs across the country and likely headed to New York, District Attorney Matt Weintraub said at a news conference on Thursday. He was likely just "passing through" Bucks County when he was stopped, Weintraub said.  Ochoa's passenger, Edith Tomasa Rodriguez Cardenas, 27, of Huntington Park,…

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by Nicole Acosta
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Feds Issue 'Violent Extremist' Terror Alert Feds Issue 'Violent Extremist' Terror Alert
Feds Issue 'Violent Extremist' Terror Alert The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday issued a nationwide terrorism alert warning citizens of “domestic violent extremists” who could incite or commit violence. "Some ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence," Acting DHS Secretary David Pekoske wrote in an official advisory that lasts until April 30. Although no evidence of a credible attack was found, Pekoski said vio…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Feds Charge South Jersey Air Force Officer With Trafficking Child Porn Feds Charge South Jersey Air Force Officer With Trafficking Child Porn
Feds Charge South Jersey Air Force Officer With Trafficking Child Porn An Air Force officer from Camden County had child porn videos and images on his cellphone that he shared with others through a cloud, said federal authorities who took him into custody. Federal agents began investigating Ryan Osinski, 31, of Cherry Hill, following a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that “images of child sexual abuse were shared from an IP address assigned to Osinski’s residence,” Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Rachael A. Honig said Friday. They found “numerous images and videos of child sexual abuse” on his phone, as well as links and fol…

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by Jerry DeMarco
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Bergen Sheriff: Eight Of 9 ICE Protestors Arrested Are From NY, Officers Pepper-Sprayed, Bit Bergen Sheriff: Eight Of 9 ICE Protestors Arrested Are From NY, Officers Pepper-Sprayed, Bit
Bergen Sheriff: Eight Of 9 ICE Protestors Arrested Are From NY, Officers Pepper-Sprayed, Bit A troubled but resolute Bergen County Sheriff Anthony Cureton on Sunday said that he agrees with anti-ICE protestors but emphasized that "inciting chaos for the sake of chaos will not be tolerated." "What occurred yesterday was not a peaceful protest. It was not a productive act of political expression," the sheriff said during a news conference Sunday outside the jail in Hackensack. "What we saw yesterday was not, in the words of my hero, John Lewis, 'good trouble'." Cureton corrected social media errors -- noting, for example, that "tear gas was not employed" and that pepper spray was di…

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by Jerry DeMarco