New Jersey Man Admits Function in Interstate Luxurious Automobile Theft Ring

A New Jersey man has admitted his function in a conspiracy to steal and transport throughout state strains luxurious vehicles stolen from cities in New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey, reported U.S. Lawyer Philip Sellinger.

Malik Baker of Vauxhall pleaded responsible earlier than U.S. District Decide Esther Salas in Newark federal court docket to at least one depend of conspiring to move stolen autos in interstate commerce and one depend of receiving a stolen automobile that had crossed state strains after being stolen.

In response to prosecutors, Baker’s conspirators – Hakeem Smith, Nafique Goodwyn, and Bilal Cureton – beforehand pleaded responsible to associated prices. Smith was sentenced on April 25, 2023, to 41 months in jail. Sentencing is pending for Goodwyn and Cureton.

In response to court docket paperwork, between July and September 2019, the defendants and others stole and conspired to steal at the least 10 luxurious vehicles from cities in New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey, and hid these vehicles at a location in Irvington, New Jersey.

The vehicles embrace a 2019 BMW X4 M40i, a 2017 BMW Alpina, a 2017 Maserati GranTurismo, a 2018 Vary Rover, a 2019 Porsche Cayenne, a 2017 Mercedes S550, a 2019 Rolls Royce, a 2019 Land Rover, a 2019 Mercedes Maybach, a 2014 Lexus GS, a 2017 BMW M4 and a 2017 Mercedes AMG S63.

Prosecutors mentioned the defendants usually used the stolen vehicles to steal extra vehicles, and, in a single occasion, they used a Maserati GranTurisimo they stole from Manalapan to steal a Vary Rover and a Porsche Cayenne. When regulation enforcement tried to conduct a cease of the Maserati, the Maserati accelerated and crashed head-on right into a police automobile earlier than the suspects fled the scene in one other stolen automobile. Legislation enforcement recovered one of many stolen vehicles in a transport container on the port in Newark en path to Ghana, Africa.

The cost of conspiracy to move stolen autos is punishable by a most potential penalty of 5 years in jail. The cost of receiving stolen autos is punishable by a most potential penalty of 10 years in jail. Each prices are punishable by a tremendous as much as $250,000, or twice the gross acquire or loss from the offenses, whichever is biggest. Sentencing is scheduled for March 7, 2024..

Subjects
Auto
Fraud
New Jersey