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James Hurt, 48, of New York, and other members of the second-story crew worked from what the FBI called a hit list of dozens of homes in the four states based on “stereotype and opportunity" from Dec. 2, 2016, to March 20, 2019.
The burglars often got into homes through unsecured upper-floor windows before seeking out cash, jewelry and guns, the FBI said
In one instance, the bureau said, $500,000 in cash was taken from a single home in Eatontown.
Overall, tens of thousands of dollars in stolen United States currency and currency from Asian countries, jewelry, family heirlooms, and other valuables were recovered, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said.
Asians were targeted “because it was believed that the victims kept large sums of currency and jewelry in their residences,” according to an FBI complaint.
Notes found in the defendants’ cars had the home addresses of individuals of Asian descent, along with derogatory terms used to describe their ethnicity, it says.
Crew members got those addresses by breaking into the victims’ vehicles at their places of business, the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Newark says.
In some cases, they placed makeshift GPS devices on the vehicles, it says.
Local, state and federal law enforcement authorities teamed up to smash the ring after local police interrupted several burglaries in progress.
A major investigation involving dozens of law enforcement agencies was headed by the FBI Newark’s Transnational Organized Crime Task Force, Sellinger said.
Hurt followed the lead of some of his fellow crew members in taking a deal from the government rather than face the potential consequences of a trial. Co-defendant Kevin Jackson, 57, of Rahway, got the same sentence two weeks ago.
Both Hurt and Jackson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
Each must serve a little over two years before he'll be eligible for release because there's no parole in the federal prison system.
In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Evelyn Padin sentenced Hurt in Newark on Thursday, May 30, to three years of supervised release.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Dong Joo Lee of Sellinger’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Narcotics Unit in Newark secured the pleas and sentences.
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Working with the FBI task force were a host of agencies, including the New Jersey State Police, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police, the NYPD, the Middlesex and Union county prosecutor's offices, Delaware State Police-Troop 2 and the Essex County Sheriff’s Office, he said.
However, the key to the takedown, Sellinger said, were police in dozens of towns:Bernards Township, Bethlehem Township, Cherry Hill, Cinnaminson, Clark, Cranford, Delran, Edison, East Brunswick, East Hanover, Eatontown, Elizabeth, Evesham Township, Exeter Township, Fair Lawn, Fort Lee, Franklin Township, Glassboro, Gloucester Township, Hackensack, Old Bridge, South Plainfield, Sayreville, Hazlet, Highland Park, Hillside, Hillsborough Township, Howell Township, Jackson, Kenilworth, Lawrence Township, Linden, Lyndhurst, Mahwah, Marlboro Township, Maywood, Middletown, Montville, Morris Township, Mount Laurel, Mountainside, New Providence, North Brunswick, North Plainfield, Ocean Township, Wall Township, Union Township, Old Bridge, Paramus, Parsippany, Phillipsburg, Piscataway, Raritan, Roselle Park, Somerville, South Brunswick, Tinton Falls, Toms River, Warren, Washington Township, Watchung, Westfield, Woodbridge, South River and Spotswood in New Jersey.
Also playing important roles were police from Forks Township, Whitehall Township, South Whitehall Township, Upper Macungie Township, New Castle County, Pocono Township and the Pocono Mountain Regional Police in PA, Haverstraw in Rockland County, NY, Town of Tuxedo in Orange County, NY, and New Castle County in Delaware, Selinger said.
Several federal agencies also participated, the U.S. attorney noted. Among them, he said, were the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of State, the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
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