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Feds: Newark Wheelman Cops Plea In 7-County Armed Robbery Spree
An ex-con from Newark told a federal judge on Thursday that he was the getaway driver in a string of overnight convenience store and gas station robberies in Bergen, Passaic, Hudson, Essex, Middlesex, Morris and Union counties.
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, …
Feds: $250,000 In Mailed NJ Checks, Money Orders Stolen, Cashed By NYC Crew
More than $250,000 worth of checks and money orders were stolen from post office mailboxes in North Jersey by a group of thieves from the Bronx who quickly converted them to cash, federal authorities said.
Crew members operated for nearly 14 months, stealing checks and money orders from the mail, altering them, depositing them into bank accounts and withdrawing the proceeds before the victims discovered the fraud. U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
Jose Lopez Blanco, 22, got them access to the mailboxes with a U.S. Postal Service master key, Carpenito said.
Law enforcement officers watche…
Feds: Yonkers Porch Pirate, Pals Stole $600,000 In Checks From Mail In Four NJ Counties
A man charged with pirating Christmas packages from porches in Yonkers was part of a crew that stole, altered and cashed $600,000 in checks mailed in Passaic, Morris, Essex and Somerset counties the past 10 months, federal authorities said Friday.
Claude Anthony Burnett, 23, who was captured by U.S. Postal Inspection Service agents, now faces charges that can bring way more serious consequences than package snatching.
Meanwhile, victims were left trying to sort out their finances.
From at least February of this year until just last month, Burnett and others fished envelopes containing chec…
High-Speed Pursuit From PA To NJ: DEA Agent Struck, Dealer Caught With 7,500 Folds, Feds Say
A fleeing drug dealer hit a DEA agent with his car and tossed a bag filled with 7,500 heroin folds out the window during what became a high-speed chase from Pennsylvania to Mercer County, authorities said.
Law enforcement officers from various agencies followed ex-con Daevon Bell, 26, of Hamilton Township from Trenton to an apartment complex in Morrisville, PA, on Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
Bell retrieved a bag from his trunk and went into one of the apartments there, then emerged carrying another bag, Carpenito said.
When members of the law enforcement posse approached h…
Priority Males: Feds Charge North Jersey Pair With $6M Postage Scam
The owners of a North Jersey company altered hundreds of thousands of labels intended for envelopes and slapped them on large boxes, deliberately short-changing the government by more than $6 million in postage, federal authorities said following their arrests.
Jack Koch, 44, of Elmwood Park, and Steven Koch, 43, of Pompton Lakes, were scheduled for video-conferenced first appearances before a federal magistrate judge Tuesday afternoon in Newark, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
The elder Koch, who went by the name “Ismail Yilmaz,” and his brother, who used the alias “Selim Memis,” owned…
Feds: Essex Woman, Accomplices Scam Seniors Out Of $675,000 In Bogus Lottery Scheme
Several elderly victims lost at least $675,000 to a crew of scammers who told them that they’d won the lottery, federal authorities said.
The vulnerable victims “received telephone calls alerting them that they had won large sums of money and various other prizes,” U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said Monday. “The victims were informed that they would have to pay taxes on these winnings.”
The victims, in turn, sent $675,000 in checks to Shanile Lyle, 27, of Orange, and a group of conspirators, he said.
“Lyle deposited these funds into back accounts she controlled and transferred portions of …
LI Moving Company Owner, North Jersey Employee Admit $540,000 Low-Ball Extortion Scheme
A Nassau County moving company owner and a Passaic County woman who worked for him admitted in federal court that they extorted customers out of nearly $550,000 with the old “low-ball” scam.
Lior Atiyas, 42, of Hewlett, Long Island began regularly low-balling estimates to move household goods, then jacking up the price by two to three times once the items were on the trucks, in early 2016, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said Friday.
He then refused to deliver the goods until the customers paid up, Carpenito said.
Atiyas recruited Lola Larios, 37, of Haledon into the scheme when she joined t…
Feds: Fugitive Accused In NJ, CT, PA Bank Robbery Spree Cut Off Monitoring Bracelet
UPDATE: A Cleveland man out on bail after robbing a bank outside Chicago cut off his monitoring bracelet, stole his mother's car and went on a holdup spree in New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, federal authorities said.
Tyler James O’Toole, 23, robbed or attempted to rob two banks in one day three separate times, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Craig Carpenito said.
O'Toole was released to home detention with electronic monitoring after authorities charged him with a August bank robbery in Glenview, Illinois, records show.
A month later, he removed the monitoring device, snatched his m…
Ex-AC Basketball Star Whose Paterson Heroin Killed 48 Users Gets 11 Years In Fed Pen
A former basketball star who led a Paterson-to-Atlantic-City drug ring that peddled heroin connected to 48 heroin overdose deaths and 84 other ODs was sentenced Monday to 135 months in federal prison.
Khalif Toombs, 31, of Egg Harbor Township previously admitted directing an operation that regularly brought heroin by the kilo from Paterson into Atlantic City.
FBI agents used wiretaps, video surveillance, confidential informants and more to infiltrate the organization, which sold heroin in bags stamped with, among other names, “AK-47,” “Apple,” “Fortnite,” “Rolex,” “Frank Lucas,” “Bentley,” …
Brick City Backhander: Feds Charge Newark Councilman With Taking Payoffs For Influence
Federal agents caught a sitting Newark City Council member pocketing payoffs in exchange for influence, authorities said Tuesday.
West Ward Councilman Joseph A. McCallum Jr., 65, was charged with soliciting and collecting bribes and kickbacks at the same time that a consultant from the city, 60-year-old Malik Frederick, was pleading guilty to his role in the scheme, they said.
McCallum “schemed to receive concealed bribes and kickbacks from Frederick, funded by developers, contracting companies, and other businesses seeking contracts and approvals principally related to development, constru…
Ex-Con Charged In Gunpoint Essex Drugstore Robbery Spree
Key pieces of evidence led to federal charges against an ex-con for robbing pharmacies in Belleville, East Orange and West Orange at gunpoint, authorities said Wednesday.
Police recovered a gun in his girlfriend’s car that Malik Conley, 27, of Newark, used in the second holdup last December in Belleville, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
Conley and an accomplice struck again a month later, this time in East Orange, Carpenito said, adding that keys to the vehicle used in that robbery were found in his pocket.
Conley apparently acted alone in the Dec. 3 robbery in Belleville, an indictmen…
Feds: NJ Postal Carrier, Cronies Conspire To Convert Stolen Credit And Economic Stimulus Cards
A Union County postal carrier stole credit and economic stimulus cards from the mail that he and three accomplices converted into cash and purchases, said federal authorities who arrested them Tuesday.
Kyle Williams, 35, was working for the U.S. Postal Service when he swiped the cards from July 2019 to August 2020 and shared them with his fellow Vauxhall defendants, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
Jarid Brooks, 27, Justin Brooks, 21, Kyjuan Hutchins, 21, and Williams activated the stolen credit cards and then used them to buy gift cards and electronics, among other items, Carpenito said…
