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16 Indicted In Crime Ring Targeting Asian-American Jewelers Across Mid-Atlantic: Feds 16 Indicted In Crime Ring Targeting Asian-American Jewelers Across Mid-Atlantic: Feds
16 Indicted In Crime Ring Targeting Asian-American Jewelers Across Mid-Atlantic: Feds An indictment of 16 members of a violent mid-Atlantic crime ring has been unsealed and the federal agencies are naming names.  Of the 16, eight of the alleged crime ring members were arrested in the morning on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023, police in Fairfax County, Virginia announced later that day.  They were all arrested in connection to a violent crime spree that took place between Jan. 7, 2022, through Jan. 27, 2023.  The crime ring members were all from Maryland and the District of Columbia. They met with their accused leader – Trevor Wright, also known as “Taliban Glizzy” …

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by Jillian Pikora
Police & Fire
Terrifying Driveway Carjacking Of Garfield Resident Leads To Arrests Of Young Trio Terrifying Driveway Carjacking Of Garfield Resident Leads To Arrests Of Young Trio
Terrifying Driveway Carjacking Of Garfield Resident Leads To Arrests Of Young Trio UPDATE: More than three months have passed since four robbers rushed a Garfield resident in his driveway and took his car, cash and jewelry at gunpoint. An intense investigation of the May 14 carjacking and robbery produced the arrests this week of two 20-year-old men and the detention of a 17-year-old boy, all from Paterson, according to Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella. Investigators also seized two handguns during simultaneous raids on Monday, the prosecutor announced on Wednesday, Aug. 30. It was around 8 o’clock on a Sunday night when the victim was ambushed as he sat in his Lexu…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Carjackers Fail In Paramus, Succeed In Fair Lawn, Crash In Englewood Carjackers Fail In Paramus, Succeed In Fair Lawn, Crash In Englewood
Carjackers Fail In Paramus, Succeed In Fair Lawn, Crash In Englewood Armed robbers who carjacked a vehicle in Fair Lawn after an attempt in Paramus failed were pursued into Englewood, where they bailed out and quickly made themselves scarce, authorities said. It began at 11:55 p.m. Monday, Aug. 28, when the masked pair approached a driver who’d stopped for a cup of coffee at the BP station on eastbound Route 4 in Paramus. The victim was parked in the lot when the robbers ordered him out of his 2021 Volkswagen Jetta at gunpoint and forcibly took his wallet, Paramus Police Chief Robert Guidetti said. He fled into the convenience store at the station with the …

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
UPDATE: Accused Getaway Driver Joins NYC Pair Jailed In Violent Bergenfield Gas Station Robbery UPDATE: Accused Getaway Driver Joins NYC Pair Jailed In Violent Bergenfield Gas Station Robbery
Update: Accused Getaway Driver Joins NYC Pair Jailed In Violent Bergenfield Gas Station Robbery UPDATE: A 19-year-old Honduran national was the wheelman for a duo who pistol-whipped a Bergenfield gas station attendant during a robbery earlier this year, authorities said. And that’s not all for Bronx resident Cesar Herrera Valerio. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement filed a detainer a short time after Valerio was booked into the Bergen County Jail, records show. ICE places detainers on immigrants believed to be illegally living in the United States. Federal judges in Newark then hold hearings to determine whether – and, if so, when -- they'll be deported. For now, Valerio joins…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Bergen Man, 71, Admitted Smothering Wife With Pillow, Tossing Her Valuables In Dumpster: Police Bergen Man, 71, Admitted Smothering Wife With Pillow, Tossing Her Valuables In Dumpster: Police
Bergen Man, 71, Admitted Smothering Wife With Pillow, Tossing Her Valuables In Dumpster: Police UPDATE: A 71-year-old Hasbrouck Heights man admitted smothering his wife to death with a pillow and then tossing some of her valuables in a Dumpster in Wood-Ridge as part of a staged home invasion, investigators said. Michael J. Manis killed 72-year-old Judith Manis on Friday, Aug. 10, but didn’t call police to their home at 110 Hamilton Avenue until 5:01 p.m. Saturday, they said. Claiming he’d only just arrived home, Manis told a 911 dispatcher that his wife “was deceased and that she was possibly beaten,” Hasbrouck Heights Police Detective Nicholas Brunetti wrote in a criminal complaint. …

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Home Invaders Target Englewood Resident Home Invaders Target Englewood Resident
Home Invaders Target Englewood Resident Two masked robbers invaded an Englewood home, authorities confirmed. Initial indications were that the robbery on Jones Road at Overlook Place around 5:30 p.m. Friday, July 21, mostly fit the pattern of the usual home invasion. That is: The home just off Route 4 was specifically targeted at a time of day when the victim was less likely than usual to be suspicious. Police from neighboring towns helped establish a perimeter, with assistance from a police K-9 unit. The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and Port Authority police were notified, as well. The Bergen County Sheriff's Bureau of C…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Shopper, 76, Tells Paramus PD He Was Driven At Gunpoint To Bank, Forced To Withdraw $10,000 Shopper, 76, Tells Paramus PD He Was Driven At Gunpoint To Bank, Forced To Withdraw $10,000
Shopper, 76, Tells Paramus PD He Was Driven At Gunpoint To Bank, Forced To Withdraw $10,000 Paramus police are trying to corroborate a claim by a 76-year-old man who told them that he was abducted by two robbers at gunpoint and forced to withdraw $10,000 from his bank Thursday afternoon. The Music & Arts store customer said the robbers took him in their car to his bank and then returned him to the Paramus Town Square on eastbound Route 4 after he pulled the cash from an ATM around noontime July 13, Paramus Police Chief Robert Guidetti said. The purported victim described the two robbers as black. One was wearing a tan suit while the other was in a t-shirt and shorts, he said. …

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Woman Assaulted, Robbed Behind Somerset County Church, Suspect’s ID Sought: Prosecutor Woman Assaulted, Robbed Behind Somerset County Church, Suspect’s ID Sought: Prosecutor
Woman Assaulted, Robbed Behind Somerset County Church, Suspect’s ID Sought: Prosecutor Authorities are seeking the public’s help identifying a man who assaulted and robbed a woman behind a Somerset County church. The assault occurred on the path behind the Blessed Sacrament Church on Washington Valley Road in Bridgewater just before 9:55 a.m. on Sunday, July 9, Somerset County Prosecutor John P. McDonald said. The victim, a Bridgewater resident, told investigators that she had been walking on the path behind the church when the man “came up behind her and placed his hands over her eyes and mouth.” Both fell to the ground, and after a brief struggle, the man took the victim’s…

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by Valerie Musson
Police & Fire
Teaneck Teen Nabbed In Hackensack Knifepoint Robbery Attempt: Police Teaneck Teen Nabbed In Hackensack Knifepoint Robbery Attempt: Police
Teaneck Teen Nabbed In Hackensack Knifepoint Robbery Attempt: Police Hackensack police nabbed a Teaneck teen moments after he tried to rob a man at knifepoint of money and his cellphone, authorities said. A first-degree robbery charge has kept Xiomor Highsmith, 19, in the Bergen County Jail since the June 22 incident. Officers responding to a call near the corner of Newman and Sussex streets found Highsmith carrying a folding knife and five counterfeit $100 bills, said Capt. Michael Antista, the officer in charge of the department. In addition to robbery, Highsmith is charged with fraud and an illegal weapons offense.

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
AT LONG LAST: Fort Lee Bar Owner’s Killer Returned To NJ After 30 Years AT LONG LAST: Fort Lee Bar Owner’s Killer Returned To NJ After 30 Years
AT Long Last: Fort Lee Bar Owner’s Killer Returned To NJ After 30 Years Justice may have been delayed, but it isn't being denied to loved ones of a Bergen County businessman who was tortured, robbed and savagely slain in his Hudson River apartment three decades ago. Jimmy Polites began the night of Aug. 4, 1994 with friends at the tavern he co-owned in Fort Lee. Hours later he was bound to a chair and hanged with an electrical cord in his Edgewater townhouse. It has taken nearly 30 years for his killer to finally pay. Thomas Christopher James was released from a New York State prison late this week after serving 28 years for murdering a reputed Long Island mo…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Hackensack Ex-Con Charged With ½ Pound Of Coke, $12G Sketchy Cash In Illegally Parked Corvette Hackensack Ex-Con Charged With ½ Pound Of Coke, $12G Sketchy Cash In Illegally Parked Corvette
Hackensack Ex-Con Charged With ½ Pound Of Coke, $12G Sketchy Cash In Illegally Parked Corvette A hardcore ex-con was charged with having nearly a half-pound of cocaine and $12,000 in suspect cash in a stolen car that he left idling in a fire lane outside a shopping mall in Hackensack. Jarrett Bruce, 39, was initially released at the Shops at Riverside just off westbound Route 4 after Lt. Sean Briggs ran a computer check, found a mismatched VIN and impounded the 2022 Chevy Corvette in early April, Hackensack Police Capt. Michael Antista said. Discovering that the ‘vette had been reported stolen, police had grounds to seek -- and obtain -- a search warrant. They found the drugs and cas…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Addicted Hooker, Longtime Guy Pal Rob Drug Buyer Lured To Route 23 Motel: Wayne PD Addicted Hooker, Longtime Guy Pal Rob Drug Buyer Lured To Route 23 Motel: Wayne PD
Addicted Hooker, Longtime Guy Pal Rob Drug Buyer Lured To Route 23 Motel: Wayne PD A convicted hooker with a heart of coal and her longtime running mate were both captured after authorities said they lured a man to a Wayne motel and then robbed him at gunpoint. It wasn’t much of a surprise to police who flushed Katherine Berg, 34, of Paterson, and Emin Goroveci, 37, of Succasunna from the woods behind the Wayne Inn that they were the ones who concocted the setup, given their drug-related, violent histories. Three years ago, the pair robbed a Leonia man whom Berg met online of several valuables – including his car -- after she slipped the victim a mickey that knocked him u…

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by Jerry DeMarco