A crew of six Bronx individuals have been sentenced for stealing more than $3 million in cash, cars and merchandise in 11 different New York counties.
That’s according to New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who announced Friday morning she had convicted Willie Baines, Josepher Cartagena, Brandon Collazo-Rivera, Justin Herrera, Douglas Noble and Alexander Santiago for felony grand larceny and felony burglary.
“The six individuals convicted and sentenced went on a crime spree that impacted businesses and residents throughout downstate New York,” James said. “These burglars left a trail of broken glass, smashed businesses, and dangerous high-speed chases in their wake.”
The Attorney General’s office revealed that the squad was connected to more than 200 commercial burglaries in downstate New York, along with some in Connecticut and New Jersey. The group stole at least 54 cars and hit other businesses — primarily ATM stores and cell phone stores — for merchandise and cash.
New York counties targeted by the six individuals included Nassau, Suffolk, Queens, Kings, Richmond, Bronx, Rockland, Westchester, Orange, Putnam and Dutchess counties.
According to the investigation, the crew would travel to neighborhoods with “several car dealerships and cell phone stores, often burglarizing several stores in one night.” At the dealerships, they’d break the front windows, take the key fobs and drive the stolen cars through the smashed windows. Similarly, they’d break the windows of cell phone and ATM store showrooms and offices and steal cash and merchandise.
The information from the Attorney General’s office also states that the crew would “often” wait for cops to show up at the site of the burglary, “and then engage in high-speed chases from the crime scene which posed additional risks for law enforcement and the surrounding community.”
Investigators eventually identified the individuals through video surveillance, cell phone and license plate reader data, and reports from other county and local police departments. They also used many of the individuals’ social media posts to track them down — including some on Instagram where they’d pose with stolen vehicles and large amounts of cash.
“This is one of those cases that highlights the extraordinary cooperation across multiple police departments and agencies in the New York Metropolitan area,” said newly-minted NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban.
All six defendants pleaded guilty to felony charges and have received prison sentences. The Attorney General’s office did not stipulate how long each of them would be behind bars.
The Bronx has seen a few high profile grand larceny cases in the past few years — including the 2021 arrest of nine people who were allegedly part of an auto theft ring and the sentencing of the owner of a health care clinic who stole more than $4 million through a housing assistance program scam in early 2022.
More recently, a Bronx FDNY firefighter was indicted in June for allegedly stealing credit card information of a dead person to use for personal spending, and a Bronx mother-daughter duo was sentenced last month for defrauding a 92-year-old woman for $840,000 in a power of attorney scheme.
In the Bronx, grand larceny is down more than 3% from 2022, but grand larceny auto has inflated well above the citywide average — up 35.3% from this time last year, according to NYPD crime statistics.
Reach Camille Botello at cbotello@schnepsmedia.com. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
