– Nigerians involved in the Criminal Enterprise
A CRIMINAL theft ring that stole hundreds of cars from owners around the US state of New Jersey and shipped the same stolen cars to many West African nations has been
broken, according to information released by the US Attorney’s Office of the Port Newark/Elizabeth area.
Mainly high-end luxury vehicles that include top brands as Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, Land Rover and Audi, the cars were stolen from communities as Newark, Elizabeth, West Orange, Roseland, Hillside, Engelwood and Manalapan.
According to First Assistant US Attorney Gil Childers, the ring controlled about 200 cars with an estimated value of $6 million, thanks to a thriving market for the kind of cars that the ring specializes in stealing and shipping across the seas.
The director of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, John Morton, traveled down from Washington to witness the press conference in Newark on Wednesday. He said that “Today is simply a good day for law and order in New York and New Jersey,” congratulating authorities for the breakthrough in smashing the ring.
The ring is believed to have 19 members, 11 of whom were arrested on Wednesday. A twelfth suspect was already in custody on an unrelated charge, Childers said. The arrests came after an 18-month investigation that involved a slew of law enforcement agencies, including Newark police, sheriff’s officers and prosecutors office personnel from Essex, Hudson, Union and Middlesex counties, the US Coast Guard, Port Authority Police and the New Jersey State Police.
The operation involved the purchase of stolen vehicles by a fence who would pay just a small fraction of the vehicle’s worth. Many of the thieves were members of or affiliated with gangs, the US Attorney’s office said. In some instances, thieves were instructed to procure certain types of vehicles, and in other instances, the thieves would let the fences know what vehicles were available.
The vehicles would then be “re-tagged,” or given a new VIN number, either a fictitious one or a legitimate VIN from another vehicle. Ring members also obtained false titles for the cars. Members of the ring would then obtain the documentation necessary to export goods aboard a container vessel. With this “legitimate” paperwork in place, the vehicles could then be shipped legally.
The cars would then be sent Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea , Sierra Leone, Gambia and other countries for sale.
Childers and Morton today both stressed that no port employee has been implicated in the thefts or illegal transport of the vehicles.
Authorities today described the ring as a loose affiliation of thieves and fences, but also placed one suspect, Hope “the Lady” Kantene, at “the center” of the scheme. Kantene, who authorities said had “an extensive overseas customer base,” bought directly from thieves as well as other fences. She would then arrange to sell them overseas or directly to customers here who would make their own shipping arrangements.
The other suspects arrested today were Manuel De Jesus Olivares, Christopher Barnes, Roman Vladimir Dilone, Mark Anthony Spivey, Kevin Miles, John Turner, Erosmosele Okoeguale, Kunle Ajisafe, Michael Bankole Omowaiye and Carlos L. Arnau.
According to the complaint, law enforcement monitored phone conversations, set up video surveillance at a warehouse and used at least one informant to crack the ring. The documents also describe the meandering route some of the pilfered autos travelled from the streets of New Jersey to sub-Saharan Africa and provide a sense of how profitable the business could be.
A 2009 Mercedes stolen in West Orange was sold by one defendant to another last August for less than $7,500. The vehicle was taken to a warehouse in New Jersey, then to a scrapyard in Elizabeth before winding up in a container with two other luxury vehicles at the Redhook Terminal in Brooklyn.
An unlicensed shipping company based in Elizabeth provided documents falsely stating the contents of the container were a Nissan, a Chevy Cavalier and personal items, according to the complaint. The Mercedes was then shipped to Ghana and reportedly sold there for $30,000.