Latest news with #BronxDistrictAttorney'sOffice
CBS News
29-04-2025
- CBS News
Eight charged in scheme to send stolen cars from NYC to West Africa
Eight men from New York City have been charged in a multi-million dollar scheme to ship stolen luxury cars to West Africa, the Bronx District Attorney's Office announced. Officials said Tuesday's announcement of the latest charges in the multi-state auto theft ring followed a nine-month investigation called "Operation High Rollers." In total, 72 cars worth $6.6 million, including a $475,000 Rolls Royce, were recovered in the operation, officials said. Bronx parking garage used as "showroom" for stolen luxury cars Investigators said the cars were stolen in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, then driven to a parking garage in the Longwood section of the Bronx, which was used as a "showroom" for buyers who paid in cash. Five of the men indicted in New York City were already charged in New Jersey, where many of the luxury cars were found in shipping containers bound for Gambia and Ghana, prosecutors said. Eleven people, including a juvenile, were charged last week in the Garden State in connection with the car theft ring. Officials previously said the owner of the parking garage on Jennings Street did not know about the stolen cars. "A new layer of danger to car theft" A $475,000 Rolls Royce was recovered in an operation taking down a luxury car theft ring in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, the Bronx DA's Office said. Bronx DA's Office New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said suspects first broke into homes to steal key fobs, adding "a new layer of danger to car theft." "Auto theft is certainly not unique to New Jersey. But easy access to neighboring states, to ports and international waters make us particularly susceptible to organized theft rings," he said. "These are not low-level crimes; they are part of a multimillion-dollar black market that fuels violence and instability," NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. "My office worked with the NYPD and NJ Attorney General Platkin's office to identify and dismantle this group, and I thank them. We will not tolerate auto crime in the Bronx," DA Darcel Clark said. Two of the eight suspects indicted Tuesday were not in custody, Clark's office said.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Yahoo
Bronx DA's Office organizes support event for victims of violence
FORDHAM, THE BRONX (PIX11) — Survivors of violence and families of crime victims gathered in the Bronx Thursday night in a show of support for each other. The gathering at an event space in the Bronx Zoo was organized by the Bronx District Attorney's Office, with help from the unit that offers support services to victims. More Local News Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark told PIX 11 News, 'The Bronx events are so important, so Bronx folks can know they have each other.' The event comes as two New Yorkers were shot and killed in two days by bullets meant for someone else. Excenia Mette, 61, died Tuesday night after running outside on Lenox Avenue when hearing gunshots. She feared her 24-year-old grandson was in the line of fire. On Wednesday night, 28-year-old Daoud Marji died of a bullet wound to his head on University Avenue in the Bronx. A 33-year-old woman was shot in the hip and survived. Both of the Bronx victims were also innocent bystanders. Darcel Clark said, 'We are trying to get to the root causes of why so many young people are deciding it's okay to put up guns and shoot at each other. We are losing a generation of people.' Yanely Henriquez attended the Bronx gathering for victims and victims' families. Her 16-year-old daughter, Angellyh Yambo, was also an innocent bystander shot to death while walking home from school in the Bronx in April of 2022. Henriquez told PIX 11 News, 'To be honest with you, I'm numb, it's something that's happening so many times that it's like a norm, and that's a problem. When things like that become a norm, there's something wrong, and we have to fix it. I don't know what's going to fix it, but we need to do better for our community, we need to do better for our kids.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBS News
04-03-2025
- CBS News
Owner of Bronx day care where toddler died from fentanyl exposure sentenced to 45 years in prison
It has been more than a year since 1-year-old Nicholas Dominici died from ingesting fentanyl at a Bronx day care. On Monday, a federal judge sentenced Grei Mendez, one of the day care's owners, to decades behind bars. Both Mendez and the toddler's mom broke down crying in court during the emotional, hour-long hearing. Dominici's heartbroken parents had said they wanted a sentence of life in prison. However, Judge Jed Rakoff ultimately gave Mendez the same sentence he gave her husband last year: 45 years in prison. Mendez broke down in tears in court as she apologized to the parents and said in Spanish, "My only mistake was entrusting people who were close to me." Her attorney argued that she was not the boss of the drug operation being run from the day care, adding her husband, Felix Herrera-Garcia, was, and she asked the judge and prosecutors to, "Please have some pity on me." Prosecutors said Herrera-Garcia fled through the back alley of the day care with several bags after four children were exposed to fentanyl in September of 2023. After the overdoses, police said they found three kilo presses, more than 2 pounds of fentanyl at the day care, and a trap door with a secret compartment containing more than 5 kilograms of fentanyl and other drugs. Prosecutors argued that Mendez should have done more to try to save the kids, but instead lied to first responders and did not use the Narcan she had at the daycare. In response to Mendez's attorneys highlighting abuse and trauma she had suffered throughout her own life, the judge said, "It is a mitigating factor, but it only goes so far." Mendez said Thursday, "It was an accident" and "I hope that someday I will be forgiven." Dominici's mother said, "Let God forgive her. My son won't return with 'I'm sorry.'" Now that Mendez has been sentenced in federal court, the Bronx District Attorney's Office said it will proceed with its own cases against Mendez, her husband and his cousin. Dominici's parents said they're hoping those cases can result in stronger sentences than the federal cases.
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Yahoo
Boy, 17, charged in murder of future Navy recruit, 18, outside NYC afterparty: cops
A 17-year-old boy was busted in connection to the Bronx murder of another teen who was 'full of life' and had high hopes of joining the Navy, cops said Friday. The younger teen was charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon in connection to the Feb. 2 early-morning murder of Juan J. Pena, 18, on Park Avenue near East 176th Street in the Tremont neighborhood, cops said. The teen was busted on Feb. 18 and charged as an adult, though his case is proceeding in the youth part of Bronx Supreme Criminal Court. A judge granted him supervised release and ordered him to use an electronic monitoring device as the investigation unfolds, prosecutors said. 'We asked for the defendant to be placed on supervised release with electronic monitoring pending further investigation and gathering more evidence,' a spokeswoman for the Bronx District Attorney's Office said in a statement. Others may have been involved in the slaying, sources said. The NYPD initially released photos of three young men in connection to the deadly shooting. Investigators initially believed the shooting stemmed from a spat outside an afterparty, sources said at the time. A black sedan pulled up to the venue, where someone inside exchanged words with the victim before opening fire, according to the sources. Juan – who was rushed to a local hospital only to succumb to his injuries – graduated from the Bronx Leadership Academy High School last summer and was planning to join the Navy, according to his family. 'I want justice for my son,' the slain teen's mother, Anayeli Pena, told The Post in Spanish Tuesday. 'They didn't kill a dog, they killed a son with a future, with a bright future. I don't want his death to go unpunished.' 'Justice is the only thing I can ask for,' she added. 'What else can I ask for? I want them to pay for what they did to my son. They didn't kill a dog. They killed a young boy full of life. They killed him, and they also killed me alive.' Juan had two sisters and one brother and lived with his stay-at-home mother. He was not a troublemaker and didn't have any enemies, according to his aunt, Shery Olivo, 35, a Dominican author. Olivo recalled the moment that her nephew visited her just three days before his tragic death. She recalled her nephew telling her, 'Tia, I'm good, I'm going into the Navy, I'm happy. I just took an exam.' Olivo said she told him, 'That's the best thing you could do and I am proud of you and I know you are going to be a great soldier and a hero.'
