Acting Attorney General Robert Lougy announced that 21 people have been indicted on first-degree charges of racketeering, conspiracy and money laundering for allegedly operating a major international carjacking and stolen car trafficking ring that stole luxury cars from suburbs along the Route 17 corridor in New Jersey and neighboring New York, as well as other suburban communities in northern and central New Jersey, shipping the cars to West Africa where they command premium prices. An additional defendant was charged with attempted theft, bringing the total defendants to 22.
The indictment, which was returned late yesterday, stems from “Operation 17 Corridor,” a joint investigation led by the Division of Criminal Justice and the New Jersey State Police, with assistance from the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey Police, ICE Homeland Security Investigations and numerous other agencies.
Most of the defendants were arrested on Oct. 27, 2015, when the partnering agencies broke up the theft ring. Ninety stolen cars worth more than $4 million were recovered.
Two alleged leaders of the ring, Tyja Evans, 39, of Watchung, and Ibn Jones, 37, of Newark, are charged with the second-degree crime of leading an auto theft trafficking network.
The ring operated based on demand for specific vehicles, including various models of Land Rover, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Maserati, Porsche, Jaguar and Bentley. Some cars were taken through carjackings, while others were taken in “soft steals” from locations where the thieves were able to steal them with their electronic keys or key fobs, which are critical to the resale value of the cars. Within the ring, individuals filled various roles, including carjacker, car thief, wheel man, fence, shipper and buyer. Shippers would load the cars into shipping containers, which were taken to ports for transport by ship to West Africa.
Two of the defendants face first-degree charges of carjacking and robbery in connection with carjackings committed by the ring:
Derrick Moore, 36, of Newark, is charged with participating in a carjacking on the night of Oct. 6, 2015, at an Italian restaurant on Route 10 in Hanover.
Three carjackers, allegedly including Moore, drove into the restaurant parking lot, and one man pointed a gun at a valet, demanding the keys to a 2015 Mercedes S550 and a 2015 Bentley Continental GT. The three men then stole the two vehicles. The Bentley was worth approximately $204,000.
Rashawn Gartrell, 37, of Irvington, is charged with a carjacking in Montclair on Aug. 24, 2015. The victim was walking toward his 2014 BMW 650i when a man, later identified as Nasir Turner, got out of a Mercedes, reached behind his back as if to grab a gun, and ordered the man to surrender his keys. Turner drove off in the BMW and Gartrell allegedly drove off in the Mercedes, which had been stolen in Saddle Brook. Turner, 37, of Newark, pleaded guilty to racketeering and faces a sentence of 11 years in prison, including nine years without parole.
The ring also was linked to two armed carjackings targeting Mercedes S550 owners that occurred at The Mills at Jersey Gardens shopping mall and The Outlet Collection Mall, both in Elizabeth.
In addition to carjackings, ring members used a variety of methods to steal cars with their keys. Cars were stolen from gas stations, convenience stores, carwashes and airports, where the drivers got out and left vehicles running. Other cars were stolen from car dealerships. Thieves also would search wealthy neighborhoods and find high-end cars unlocked with the key fob in the glove box. In other cases, individuals in the ring would use fraudulent credit cards with stolen or fictitious identities to rent desired cars from car rental agencies and simply never return them.
Of the cars recovered, 19 were rental cars. Some of the cars would be “retagged” with new vehicle identification numbers and taken to another state, where new titles and temporary tags were obtained. In this way the stolen cars were essentially “laundered.” A total of 17 of the stolen cars that were recovered had been retagged.
After vehicles were stolen, the theft crew typically would store or “cool off” the cars at various locations, including short-term airport parking garages, residential parking complexes, residential back yards, commercial warehouses and shipping containers, to make sure they were not equipped with tracking devices that would lead law enforcement to them. Other times, members of the ring removed tracking devices from the cars. After a vehicle was sufficiently “cooled,” it was moved to a “fence.”
There were multiple levels of fences through which the stolen cars typically moved before reaching their ultimate destinations. The fences arrested within this organization would generally buy stolen cars directly from a theft crew or a lower-level fence within the organization. The fences then moved the car up to a higher-level fence or, in the case of a high-ranking fence, sold the car directly to a buyer. The stolen cars were fenced both domestically and internationally.
Domestically, the stolen vehicles have been found in Arizona, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Georgia, Texas, and New Jersey. Internationally, the vehicles were most frequently exported to West Africa, including the countries of Ghana, Nigeria, Guinea, and Gambia. Luxury vehicles can sell in West Africa for prices in excess of new market value in the United States.
The fences used “wheel men” to move the stolen cars to different locations while purchase prices were being negotiated with other fences and potential buyers. The “shippers” who have been charged allegedly facilitated the organization’s illicit operation by arranging for stolen cars to be placed on shipping containers and transported to different seaports within New Jersey and New York. They completed a bill of lading for the container that typically misrepresented the actual contents of the container. The loading locations used include Evans Terminal in Hillside and various locations in the Bronx, N.Y.
Of the 90 vehicles recovered, 23 were recovered at ports used by the ring, including Port Newark, Port Elizabeth, Global Terminal in Bayonne, and the Howland Hook Seaport in Staten Island, N.Y.
Investigators believe that additional vehicles were being moved by this criminal enterprise, beyond those recovered in the investigation. The ring operated in Rockland County, N.Y., and multiple counties in New Jersey, including Morris, Bergen, Essex, Union, Hudson, Monmouth, Middlesex, Hunterdon and Somerset Counties.
All 21 of the following defendants are charged with racketeering (1st degree), conspiracy (1st degree), money laundering (1st degree), fencing (2nd degree), receiving stolen property (2nd degree) and burglary (3rd degree). All except Andrea Brown also are charged with theft by unlawful taking (2nd degree).
The defendants are listed below under certain roles. However, many defendants assumed multiple roles. For example, the alleged leaders also assumed other roles, including high-level fence. In addition, street-level fences also acted as carjackers/thieves, and vice versa.
Leaders
Tyja Evans, 39, of Watchung, NJ; and
Ibn Jones, 37, of Newark, NJ
Shippers and High-Level Fences
Peter Cleland, 33, of East Orange, N.J.;
Sowah Anan, 31, of Elizabeth, N.J.;
Adama Fofana, 53, of the Bronx, N.Y.; and
Alpha Jalloh, 27, of New York, N.Y.
Rental Car Thefts
Julian Atta-Poku, 34, of Queens Village, N.Y. (allegedly coordinated sales of stolen rental cars); and
Andrea Brown, 25, of Jamaica, N.Y. (allegedly used fraudulent credit cards and driver’s licenses to rent cars which she stole).
Street-Level Fences
Eric Aikens, 40, of Newark, N.J.;
Levell Burnett, 39, of Newark, N.J.; and
Damion Mikell, 33, of Newark, N.J.
Carjackers, Car Thieves and/or Wheel Men
Derrick Moore, 36, of Keansburg, N.J.;
Rashawn Gartrell, 37, of Irvington, N.J.,
Kenneth Daniels, 30, of Newark, N.J.;
Tyree Johnson, 23, of Newark, N.J.;
Donnel Carroll, 28, of Newark, N.J.;
Khalil Culbreath, 38, of Newark, N.J.;
Terrence Wilson, 39, of Newark, N.J.;
Marquis Price, 32, of Newark, N.J.;
Frazier Gibson, 29, of Montclair, N.J., and
Alterique Jones, 41, of Maplewood, N.J.
The 22nd defendant named in the indictment is Dominique E. Diaz, 29, of Newark, N.J., who is charged with third-degree attempted theft for allegedly participating with Derrick Moore in the attempted theft of a Jeep Grand Cherokee in Upper Saddle River on Nov. 26, 2014.
Four defendants charged in the case previously pleaded guilty:
Eddie Craig, 36, of Beverly, N.J., pleaded guilty on Feb. 11 to first-degree racketeering and faces a recommended sentence of nine years in prison, including nearly eight years of parole ineligibility.
Nasir Tuner, 36, of Newark, N.J., pleaded guilty on March 1 to first-degree racketeering and faces a recommended sentence of 11 years in prison, including more than nine years of parole ineligibility.
Manuel Olivares pleaded guilty on Jan. 13 to second-degree racketeering and faces a recommended sentence of seven years in prison.
Panel Dalce, 43, of South Orange, N.J., pleaded guilty on Dec. 22, 2015 to second-degree racketeering and faces a recommended sentence of six years in prison.
First-degree carjacking carries a sentence of 10 to 30 years in state prison, with a period of parole ineligibility equal to 85 percent of the sentence imposed, and a fine of up to $200,000. First-degree racketeering carries a sentence of 10 to 20 years in prison, with a period of parole ineligibility equal to 85 percent of the sentence imposed, and a fine of up to $200,000.
First-degree money laundering carries a sentence of 10 to 20 years in prison, including a period of parole ineligibility equal to one-third to one-half of the sentence imposed, with the sentence to run consecutively to sentences for any other charges, and a fine of up to $500,000.
Second-degree crimes carry a sentence of five to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $150,000, while third-degree crimes carry a sentence of three to five years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000.