Global crime ring behind NJ porch thefts of new phones, feds say

📞 New phones delivered to New Jersey homes frequently stolen

📞 13 people charged including 5 New Jersey men

📞 Crime ring was highly organized, according to U.S. Attorney

An accused international crime ring is being held responsible for a plague of delivery thefts that targeted new phones on front porches throughout New Jersey — and federal prosecutors say it was an inside job.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark announced charges against 12 men from New York and New Jersey, plus another man from the Dominican Republic.

They targeted packages out for delivery with new iPhones and other electronics, prosecutors said.

And the group knew when and where these phones would be delivered because they had two co-conspirators inside Fed-Ex to feed them information, prosecutors said.

READ MORE: GOP wants to oust NJ Attorney General for 'lawfare'

Phone delivery thefts were inside job

Federal prosecutors said the group was behind more than 400 thefts in New Jersey last year and thousands more nationwide.

Phone delivery thefts became so common that police in Stafford and other communities issued warnings to residents about crews racing each other to steal them last summer.

At the time, investigators were trying to figure out how the thieves got tracking numbers for the deliveries.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the ring bribed two corrupt employees at a major cell phone service provider to get customer information including names, addresses, and tracking numbers.

The charged employees have been identified as Alejandro Then Castillo, 45, of Paterson and Wilson Peralta Tavarez, 28, of Belleville. They were both charged with wire fraud conspiracy and conspiracy to transport and receive stolen property.

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Prosecutors said the highly-organized crime ring had "dispatchers" who got the tracking numbers and sent them to "runners," who carried out the thefts.

Once packages were stolen, runners took the phones to a residential building in the Bronx.

Three other New Jersey men were also charged with conspiracy to transport and receive stolen property: Ecker Montero Hernandez, 25, of Paterson; Jean Luis Diaz Dominguez, a/k/a “Botija,” 24, of Paterson; and Luis Nunez, 23, of Paterson.

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