A duo hailing from Brooklyn, New York, has acknowledged a spate of armed robberies at check cashing facilities across New Jersey, alongside conspiracies planning further robberies in varied states, as disclosed by U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger on Thursday. Ramel Harris, aged 42, and Neville Brown, aged 40, submitted their guilty pleas on August 14, 2024, in the presence of U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi at the Newark federal court. They were charged against three counts in an indictment including Hobbs Act conspiracy, Hobbs Act robbery, and wielding, transporting, and flaunting firearms during criminal activities.
As per judicial records and accounts, Harris and Brown were implicated in a triplet of armed robberies spanning January 2021 and January 2022. They chose check cashing enterprises across diverse New Jersey locales as their targets, where they restrained the employees using cable ties, waved firearms, and purloined over $578,000. A scare related to attempted robbery at a check cashing location in Nanuet, New York, also precedes these successful thefts.
Detectives identified Harris and Brown’s involvement in the crime scenes through video surveillance and cell phone records, which placed them in the vicinity. Several leads emerged during the investigations, revealing that the accused had performed preliminary observations of prospective targets in Mount Kisco, New York, Allentown, Pennsylvania, and West Chester, Pennsylvania, as a part of their extensive robbery conspiracy.
Charges of Hobbs Act conspiracy and robbery entertain a potential twenty-year sentence each. Another charge – displaying a firearm during a criminal act – brings a potential lifelong sentence accompanied by a mandatory seven-year term minimum, which needs to follow any pre-imposed sentences. Both offences also invite fines of up to $250,000 or double the financial benefit or loss incurred, depending on which amount is larger.
Sentencing of both defendants is anticipated for December 17, 2024. Four flight attendants have confessed to charges associated with smuggling drug proceeds from New York City to the Dominican Republic, as unveiled by U.S. Attorney Damian Williams on Wednesday. These defendants, while exploiting their job positions, endorsed the transmission of earnings from narcotics.
Sarah Valerio Pujols, Charlie Hernandez, Emmanuel Torres, and Jarol Fabio, who were serving various international airlines, were enabled by their ‘Known Crewmember’ (KCM) status with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to bypass regular security measures at John F. Kennedy International Airport. They illicitly misused their special status, enabling them to navigate through dedicated security lanes with decreased scrutiny, to heft amounts of cash procured from drug trafficking.
As stated in court files and remarks aired during proceedings, the accused colluded with a prominent money-laundering organization (MLO) managed by a cooperative witness, referred to as CW-1. The domain of the MLO was to handle the transfer of drug earnings from New York City to the Dominican Republic. The flight attendants were entrusted with substantial cash quantities sourced from CW-1 in NYC, succeeded in smuggling it past the airport safety checks, and finally, reassigned it to another MLO associate in the Dominican Republic, named CW-2.
The scheme faced disintegration when CW-1 and CW-2 decided to join forces with the law enforcement agencies. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the New York City Police Department (NYPD) led undercover operations, and the defendants were provided funds represented as drug revenues in the process.
Once they moved the money to the Dominican Republic, it was given to CW-2 and then relayed back to the law enforcement officials. Valerio Pujols issued her confession before U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald on July 23, 2024, followed by a similar submission by Hernandez on July 25, 2024, in front of U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams.
Torres and Fabio acknowledged their guilt more recently, the former before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Cave on August 12, 2024, and the latter in front of U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian on August 13, 2024. Fareed Dabidah, residing in Bronx, was seized on Thursday for possession of a large number of automatic and semi-automatic firearms, suppressors, and a multitude of machinegun conversion implements, as per the announcement of U.S. Attorney Damian Williams and NYPD Commissioner Edward A. Caban.
NYPD’s scrupulous efforts in this case reassert the commitment to curb gun violence by intercepting illicit, unregistered homemade ‘ghost guns’ and other illegal firearms before they can infest the streets of New York City. The complaint discloses that Dabidah initiated orders for components spanning various online sellers as early as October 2022, planning to 3D print and assemble privately made firearms, coined as ‘ghost guns’.
On August 15, 2024, law enforcement officers obtained a search warrant and conducted a search of Dabidah’s Bronx apartment, unraveling 39 machinegun conversion tools, 14 finished ‘ghost guns’—six among them equipped with the machinegun conversion implements, five partially finished 3D-printed assault rifles, two firearm suppressors, a duo of 3D printers, and a range of magazines and bullets.
Machinegun conversion devices, transforming semi-automatic firearms to fully automatic ones, are banned under federal regulations barring proper licensing. These devices, colloquially known ‘Glock switches’ for handguns and ‘auto sears’ for assault rifles, are unlawful to possess.
A male resident in North Tonawanda delivered a confession admitting to his contribution to a scheme that wielded robbed credit card details to buy gas worth many thousands of dollars, as reported by U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross on Wednesday. Kingsley Brown, aged 22, filed his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge John L. Sinatra, Jr., acknowledging his involvement in a conspiracy to commit bank fraud, a crime that brings in a potential sentence of 30 years imprisonment.
As stated by Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles M. Kruly, who is prosecuting the case, Brown and his accomplice Cross Malik Williams got involved in a fraudulent activity between August 2022 and July 2023. The duo acquired roughly 570 stolen bank card numbers spread across different online markets. They used a card-making device to transfer this stolen data onto blank plastic cards with magnetic strips for making purchases on victims’ accounts.
These cards were mainly used to buy gas, reselling it at lower costs to others. The customers buying the gas paid amounts less than its actual cost to Brown and Williams, making it a source of earnings for the criminals. Brown agreed, as part of his plea, to causing a total loss of $192,673. His accomplice, Cross Malik Williams, was convicted before him and is awaiting his sentence. Brown’s sentencing will occur later, carrying up to a 30-year prison term for his role in the scheme. This marks federal authorities’ relentless actions against credit card fraud and related financial offenses.