Man Sentenced For 11 Armed Robberies, 2 In North Jersey: Feds

NEW JERSEY - A Brooklyn man was sentenced Wednesday for his part in a robbery crew that executed 11 armed robberies in New York City, New Jersey and Long Island, federal officials said.

Victor Rivera, 31, was sentenced to 19 years in prison in connection with the robberies that targeted luxury watches worth up to hundreds of thousands of dollars between October 2019 and November 2020, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams announced Wednesday.

The watches owned by victims targeted in the robberies included Richard Mille, Rolex, Audemars Piguet, and Patek Philippe watches. Rivera pled guilty in January to participating in a conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery, which combines robbery and extortion.

“Victor Rivera committed nearly a dozen robberies of unarmed and defenseless victims, stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars of jewelry in the process,” Williams said. “During one of these robberies, he shot the victim in front of the victim’s own home. This lengthy sentence holds Rivera accountable for these terrifying acts of violence.”

Rivera used guns to commit several of the robberies, and in one robbery in Englewood Cliffs in August 2020, he shot a victim, who survived. Rivera and a co-conspirator collected a Richard Mille watch – worth over $250,000 – from the robert, among other things.

Rivera and a co-conspirator also robbed a jeweler in Hoboken in July 2020 of, among other things, a Richard Mille watch worth over $81,000.

In addition to his prison term, Rivera, 31, of Brooklyn, New York, was sentenced to three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $1,380,800 in restitution and $1,380,800 in forfeiture.