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Organized Crime

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9-County Retail Theft Ring Busted: PA Attorney General 9-County Retail Theft Ring Busted: PA Attorney General
9-County Retail Theft Ring Busted: PA Attorney General Five people involved in a major organized retail theft operation have been charged with targeting stores across nine counties, authorities said. Marlin Polanco, Malik McDonald, Cartier Hardy, Homario Oldacre, and Lorenzo Walters were charged in Dauphin County with corrupt organizations, organized retail theft, and related crimes, Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry said on Monday, Aug. 26. The total value of stolen goods is estimated to be worth more than $71,000, Henry said. Between February 28 and May 30, the group allegedly stole over-the-counter medications and other health an…

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by Jon Craig
Police & Fire
Reality Bites NJ ‘Real Housewives’ Ex Convicted Of Hiring Mobster To Beat Wife’s New Man Reality Bites NJ ‘Real Housewives’ Ex Convicted Of Hiring Mobster To Beat Wife’s New Man
Reality Bites NJ ‘Real Housewives’ Ex Convicted Of Hiring Mobster To Beat Wife’s New Man 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: Reality bit the ex-husband of “Real Housewives of New Jersey” cast member Dina Manzo when he was convicted Tuesday of getting a mob soldier to throw her new beau a beating. Restaurateur Thomas Manzo, 59, who lives in the affluent Bergen County suburb of Franklin Lakes, rejected a plea deal from federal prosecutors and took his chances with a jury. That didn’t go so good. Jurors in U.S. District Court in Newark convicted Manzo on June 4 of committing a violent crime in aid of racketeering, along with conspiracy and falsifying documents during a grand jury investigation. Althou…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
COLD CASE: Alleged NYC Gang Member Was Found Dead In Barrel Off I-95 In Bucks County COLD CASE: Alleged NYC Gang Member Was Found Dead In Barrel Off I-95 In Bucks County
Cold CASE: Alleged NYC Gang Member Was Found Dead In Barrel Off I-95 In Bucks County State troopers are investigating the murder of a suspected New York City gangster more than 25 years ago.  Jia Qiang Li, 27, was found murdered on Jan. 2, 1997, according to Pennsylvania State Police.  The Chinese national's body was discovered in a plastic garbage can at the bottom of an embankment off Interstate 95 in Lower Makefield Township, investigators say.  Troopers said his remains had been "intentionally mutilated to some degree after his death." According to detectives, Li was affiliated with the Pell Street Flying Dragons, a street gang active in Manhattan's Chi…

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by Mac Bullock
Police & Fire
2 Broken Thumbs Down: Gambino Family Hothead Nearly Torches Jersey Shore Restaurant, Feds Say 2 Broken Thumbs Down: Gambino Family Hothead Nearly Torches Jersey Shore Restaurant, Feds Say
2 Broken Thumbs Down: Gambino Family Hothead Nearly Torches Jersey Shore Restaurant, Feds Say Life imitated art when a reputed Gambino crime family captain threatened to burn down a Jersey Shore restaurant, then went to a service station across the street and tried to buy and fill a plastic gas can, federal authorities said. In what could’ve been a scene from any number of modern-day mob movies, Joseph Lanni of Staten Island became a walking cliché, the Justice Department said in announcing an organized-crime takedown that stretched all the way to Sicily. Lanni and fellow Staten Islander Vincent “Vinny Slick” Minsquero “became belligerent” after being asked to leave Roxy’s Bar and G…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Burglar With Hit List Of Asian Homeowners In NJ, NY, PA, DE Gets 50 Months In Federal Prison Burglar With Hit List Of Asian Homeowners In NJ, NY, PA, DE Gets 50 Months In Federal Prison
Burglar With Hit List Of Asian Homeowners In NJ, NY, PA, DE Gets 50 Months In Federal Prison UPDATE: A member of a second-story crew who targeted Asian and Asian-American homeowners in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware for burglaries was sentenced to a plea-bargained four years and two months in federal prison, authorities said. Randi Barr, 42, of Union County, NJ, was part of a group that worked from a hit list of dozens of homes based on “stereotype and opportunity,” federal authorities said. Local, state and federal law enforcement authorities who teamed up to smash the ring found notes in the defendants’ cars that had the home addresses of individuals of Asian des…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
COLD CASE: Gruesome Home Invasion Homicide Under Investigation In PA COLD CASE: Gruesome Home Invasion Homicide Under Investigation In PA
Cold CASE: Gruesome Home Invasion Homicide Under Investigation In PA Investigators are taking another look at a gruesome home invasion turned execution of a wealthy Pennsylvania man. Jeffrey Charles Horwith, 37, was the heir apparent to his father's Northampton-based business, Horwith Trucking Incorporated, state police say.  He was headed to his North Whitehall home after a dinner at a local restaurant with his wife on July 29, 1988, according to Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers. When he arrived back home, Horwith was greeted by a masked gunman, according to an Allentown Morning Call article published a week after the fact.  Horwith an…

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by Mac Bullock & Jillian Pikora
News
Fugitive Dubbed 'Real-Life Tony Soprano' Couldn't Hide From The Law, Even In Death Fugitive Dubbed 'Real-Life Tony Soprano' Couldn't Hide From The Law, Even In Death
Fugitive Dubbed 'Real-Life Tony Soprano' Couldn't Hide From The Law, Even In Death He was considered one of the last of the old-time mobsters, a "real-life Tony Soprano" listed as one of New Jersey's most wanted fugitives. Even six feet under, though, Tony Mota couldn't evade his pursuers. After eluding capture for nearly 25 years for a gruesome murder committed in Hudson County, Anthony Mota was found buried in the country where he was born, the Dominican Republic. Mota had been collecting debts for high-level Colombian drug dealers in New York City when he and a group of accomplices abducted a Queens man on Dec. 13, 1997, authorities said. The victim, 38-year-old …

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
NJ Ring That Dealt Fentanyl, Crack Smashed By Federal, County, Local Crime-Fighting Team NJ Ring That Dealt Fentanyl, Crack Smashed By Federal, County, Local Crime-Fighting Team
NJ Ring That Dealt Fentanyl, Crack Smashed By Federal, County, Local Crime-Fighting Team Eleven accused members of a drug ring that authorities said openly peddled crack and potentially fatal fentanyl in a Newark neighborhood were charged federally on Wednesday. The ring's "primary supplier," Frazier Burton, 46, was caught with 100 bricks of heroin and fentanyl when tactical officers arrested him Wednesday morning, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. At 50 bags per brick, that's 5,000 individual packages -- all of which Honig said carried the neighborhood drug network's particular stamps. The case took several months for an ad hoc team of local, county and federal inve…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
NJ, PA Trio Trafficked Dozens Of 'Ghost Guns,' Indictment Charges NJ, PA Trio Trafficked Dozens Of 'Ghost Guns,' Indictment Charges
NJ, PA Trio Trafficked Dozens Of 'Ghost Guns,' Indictment Charges Two Philadelphia men and one from Camden trafficked no fewer than two dozen untraceable “ghost guns” from Pennsylvania into New Jersey, a grand jury indictment alleges. Even more guns, as well as parts, large-capacity magazine and ammo, were seized during the investigation, Acting New Jersey Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck said Tuesday. According to the indictment returned in Trenton, Eduardo T. Lazo Jr., 26, of Camden, organized the operation and sold the illegal guns in Camden. Juan Enrique Fernandez, 29, and Ericknell Rivera-Mercado, 31, both of Philadelphia, are accused of bringing th…

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by Jerry DeMarco