21 Charged With Stealing Morris County Cars, Selling Them In Africa: Authorities

By Daniel Hubbard

Twenty-one people have been charged in a takedown of an international carjacking and theft ring that stole 90 luxury vehicles worth more than $4 million and sold them in Africa, authorities announced Wednesday.

The $4 million in stolen vehicles were taken from communities in North and Central Jersey and shipped to West Africa where they are in high demand, said state Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman. The ring operated in Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris, Mommouth, Middlesex, Hunterdon, and Somerset counties.

Eighteen men were arrested Tuesday on charges, including: racketeering, carjacking, and money laundering, officials said. Three more fugitives have had warrants issued for their arrests.

Approximately 90 stolen cars were recovered in the multi-agency, 16-month long investigation called Operation 17 Corridor led by the New Jersey State Police and the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice.

“While fortunately we have not had anyone shot or murdered during a carjacking in this case, we’ve seen in other cases how quickly things can turn deadly when carjackers carry out the type of armed ambush this ring committed. We’ve completely dismantled this dangerous network and charged its members with first-degree crimes,” Hoffman said in a statement.

Members of the ring worked in teams, and scouted golf courses, high-end restaurants, malls, and residential neighborhoods to find the specific luxury vehicles they wanted, Hoffman said.

A Bentley worth approximately $204,000 was allegedly carjacked by three people outside a popular Italian restaurant on Route 10 in Hanover, authorities said. One of the men allegedly pointed a gun at a valet outside of the restaurant and demanded the keys to a 2015 Mercedes S550 and a 2015 Bentley Continental GT, which were parked in front of the restaurant. Derrick Moore, 36, of Keansburg, has been charged with first-degree conspiracy to commit carjacking in connection with the incident.

The ring often sought after various models of Land Rover, Mercedez Benz, Maserati, Porsche, Jaguar, and Bentley vehicles, authorities said. Of the 90 that were recovered, 23 were found at ports the ring used, including Port Newark, Port Elizabeth, Global Terminal in Bayonne, and the Howland Hook Seaport in Staten Island, New York.

After they were stolen, the crew would ”cool off” or keep the vehicles at various locations, including short-term airport parking garages, residential parking complexes, backyards, commercial warehouses, warehouses, and even shipping containers, authorities said.

Once “cooled,” a vehicle was moved to a “fence,” or someone who would buy it from the theft crew, or a high-ranking fence within the organization, who would then sell the vehicle to a buyer, Hoffman said.

The ”fences” used “wheel men” to move the stolen vehicles to different locations while purchase prices were being negotiated. “Shippers” allegedly arranged for the stolen vehicles to be placed on shipping containers and transported to different New York and New Jersey seaports. They created a bill of landing and lied about what were in the containers. The containers were often loaded at Evans Terminal in Hillside and various locations in The Bronx, New York.

The ring made sure the vehicles did not have tracking devices on them and they were removed from the ones that did. Once the

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police and the U.S. Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and other agencies assisted in the investigation.