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Meshach Whagar, 31, admitted during a video-conferenced plea hearing that he was the wheelman during the 20 predawn holdups in November and December of 2017, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
It included robberies in Lodi, Mahwah, Elmwood Park, Clifton, Hoboken, Bayonne, Kearny, Parsippany, Rockaway, Morris Plains, West Orange, East Brunswick, South River, Edison, Union, Clark, Maplewood Springfield, Middlesex, Roselle Park and Rahway.
The gunman, fellow ex-con Tione Davis, 38, previously took a guilty plea himself.
Davis, of East Orange wore dark clothing and covered his face with masks or scarves during the holdups, Carpenito said.
In one, he stuck a silver and black handgun in a clerk's face at a Quick Chek on Market Street in Clifton before fleeing with $400 in cash just after 4 a.m. Dec. 11.
SEE: Police: Ex-Con Was Masked Gunman Who Robbed Clifton QuickChek
Waiting behind the wheel of a maroon Chrysler Sebring was Whager, who later led police on a high-speed chase that ended in a crash in Morris County.
Whagar was immediately arrested and Davis was captured the following day. Carpenito said police found two handguns in the car that had been used in the robberies.
Four days earlier, Davis robbed an Elmwood Park 7 Eleven of $350 using the same gun, authorities said.
SEE: Feds: Elmwood Park 7-Eleven Among Targets Of Ski-Masked Armed Robbers
All of the robberies occurred between 2 and 6 a.m., Carpenito said.
They include holdups at a BP gas station on Meisel Avenue in Springfield; at a 7-Eleven on Westfield Avenue West in Roselle Park; and at least three other QuickCheks – on Harris Avenue in Middlesex, on Westfield Avenue in Clark and on Woodbridge Road in Rahway.
U.S. District Court Judge Kevin McNulty scheduled an April 28 sentencing for Whagar’s guilty pleas to nine counts of Hobbs Act robbery, as well as conspiracy and using a firearm during a violent crime.
Carpenito credited special agents of the FBI and thanked the Bergen, Passaic, Hudson, Morris, Union, Middlesex, and Essex County prosecutor’s offices, as well as police from the various towns for their work on the case.
Securing Whagar’s plea deal was Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Suchorsky of Carpenito’s Economic Crimes Unit.
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