21 Indicted In New Jersey, New York Carjacking Ring
TRENTON, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A New Jersey grand jury this week indicted 21 people for allegedly running a carjacking ring targeting drivers along the Route 17 corridor.
The indictment, which was returned late Thursday, stemmed from the Operation 17 Corridor investigation by multiple law enforcement agencies. Most of the suspects were arrested on Oct. 27 of last year when police and federal law enforcement broke up the theft ring, according to the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice.
The suspects alleged targeted luxury vehicles, CBS2's Christine Sloan reported in October. They focused on suburban communities between Monmouth County in New Jersey and Rockland County in New York.
Bergen County communities were targeted in particular, authorities said.
They allegedly stole an assortment of high-end vehicles – including Bentleys and Range Rovers, Mercedes Benzes and BMWs – and for illegal shipment in containers to West Africa.
Two defendants – Rashawn Gartrell, 37, of Irvington and Derrick Moore, 36, of Newark, were charged with carjacking and robbery.
Moore was accused of participating in a carjacking on Oct. 6, 2015, at an Italian restaurant in on Route 10 in Hanover. Moore and two other suspects allegedly drove into the parking lot and held a valet at gunpoint, demanding the keys to a 2015 Mercedes S550 and a 2015 Bentley Continental GT, authorities alleged. The Bentley was worth about $204,000.
Gartrell was accused in a carjacking in Montclair on Aug. 24, 2015. A man was walking toward his 2014 BMW 650i when a man – later identified as Nasir Turner – got out of a Mercedes, reached behind his back as if to grab a gun, and demanded the man's keys, authorities said. Turner drove off in the BMW, while Gartrell took off in the Mercedes, which had been stolen in Saddle Brook, authorities alleged.
The ring was also accused in two armed carjackings targeting Mercedes S550 owners at The Mills a Jersey Gardens shopping mall and The Outlet Collection Mall in Elizabeth, authorities said.
Multiple rings have been busted since attorney Dustin Friedland was carjacked and murdered at the Short Hills Mall in December 2013.
There is a demand for luxury cars in West Africa, where they sell for three times the value. But new technology involving push-button starts and new key fobs makes hot-wiring newer cars virtually impossible, authorities said.
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