6 Broke Into 200+ Car Dealerships, Cellphone Stores, ATM Businesses

NEW YORK — Six members of a crew responsible for more than 200 burglaries of car dealerships, cell phone stores, and ATM businesses located in the lower Hudson Valley, New York City, and on Long Island have been convicted after a 13-month investigation that benefited by boastful social media posts.

The crew of Willie Baines, Josepher Cartagena, Brandon Collazo-Rivera, Justin Herrera, Douglas Noble, and Alexander Santiago, all of the Bronx, stole cars, cell phones, merchandise, and cash valued at more than $3 million, including at least 54 vehicles, said New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The convictions were the result of a 13-month joint investigation by the Office of the Attorney General’s Organized Crime Task Force and 30 local and county police departments.

During the 13-month investigation, the theft crew was connected to over 200 commercial burglaries in 11 downstate counties, including Bronx, Dutchess, Kings, Orange, Nassau, Putnam, Queens, Richmond, Rockland, Suffolk and Westchester, in addition to burglaries in Connecticut and New Jersey.

Members of the theft crew traveled to neighborhoods that contained several car dealerships and cell phone stores, and often broke into several stores over a single night, prosecutors said.

In the automobile dealership burglaries, members of the crew would smash the large windows at the front of the building, locate boxes in the dealership that contained key fobs, and then drive vehicles they started right through the broken windows.

In the cell phone and ATM store burglaries, members of the crew would smash the glass front doors, enter the stores’ showrooms and offices, and steal as much merchandise and cash as they could carry out, prosecutors said.

The theft crew would often wait for the police to respond to a burglary alarm, and then engage in high-speed chases from the crime scene, which posed additional risks for law enforcement and the surrounding community.

This behavior led law enforcement to dub the investigation “Operation Redline” in reference to the redline on speedometers and the extreme speeds the burglars would achieve as they fled crime scenes.

Investigators from OCTF and NYPD identified the six people charged in the case through the review of video surveillance recordings, data from cell phones, license plate reader data, and information provided by numerous county and local police departments.

Additionally, several defendants posted photos on various social media outlets posing with some of the stolen vehicles, and displaying large quantities of cash. Many of the social media posts occurred just minutes after the crimes, allowing investigators to connect the stolen property seen in the posts to specific burglaries and defendants.

A search of the residences of two of the men led to the recovery of thousands of dollars in stolen cell phones and key fobs from car dealerships.

The six were charged with various counts of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree (Class C felony), Grand Larceny in the Third Degree (Class D felony), and Burglary in the Third Degree (Class D felony). All pleaded guilty to felony charges and all received prison sentences.

• Josepher Cartagena, 27, pled guilty to Grand Larceny in the Second Degree.
• Brandon Collazo-Rivera, 26, pled guilty to Grand Larceny in the Second Degree.
• Douglas Noble, 29, pled guilty to Grand Larceny in the Second Degree.
• Alexander Santiago, 28, pled guilty to Grand Larceny in the Second Degree.
• Justin Herrera, 23, pled guilty to Burglary in the Third Degree.
• Willie Baines, 47, pled guilty to Attempted Burglary in the Third Degree.

The investigation was jointly led by the NYPD Auto Crime Unit and the Organized Crime Task Force. James also thanked her partners in local law enforcement for their close coordination, including the Nassau County Police Department, Suffolk County Police Department, Westchester County Police Department, Amityville Police Department, Floral Park Police Department, Village of Hempstead Police Department, Yonkers Police Department, Mount Pleasant Police Department, New Rochelle Police Department, White Plains Police Department, Greenburgh Police Department, Tarrytown Police Department, Mamaroneck Police Department, Orangetown Police Department, Clarkstown Police Department, Ramapo Police Department, Spring Valley Police Department, Newburgh Police Department, Washingtonville Police Department, Chester Police Department, New Windsor Police Department, and Poughkeepsie Police Department. She acknowledged the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Safe Streets Task Force, New Haven, Connecticut and Westchester County, New York Field Offices, and the Eastern District of New York and District of Connecticut U.S. Marshal Service.