A group of 14 people are accused of using insider data to steal electronics and cellphones being shipped to Long Island addresses.
The defendants face a total of 50 charges for a scheme that ran from October 2023 to February 2025, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said.
The prosecutors did not say who provided the members of the scheme with the inside FedEx delivery information on where and when devices would be delivered.
“We believe that information was hacked,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said, according to the New York Post. He added that getting the FedEx information “requires a certain level of sophistication.”
Andricson Jerez, 29, of the Bronx is accused of leading the scheme by directing “runners,” who were given information including device types, tracking numbers and the names and Long Island addresses of people getting packages from Verizon and AT&T.
The runner would engage in “porch piracy” and steal the packages, delivering them to a Bronx address prosecutors called “the fencing location.”
From the “fencing location,” Mr. Jerez is accused of taking the stolen phones and electronics to another Bronx address that prosecutors deemed “the stash house,” and then working with his father Juan Baez, 48, to deliver the devices to fellow suspects Fawaz Hameed, 35, Anzar Ali, 57, and Eddie Zaibak, 28, so that they could be sold in bulk both in the U.S. and abroad.
Investigators found over 200 new phones, other electronic devices and over $100,000 in cash at the “stash house,” and found a scanner that detected the unique “International Mobile Equipment Identity” of devices at Mr. Zaibak’s residence, the district attorney’s office said.
Some of the runners are accused of getting violent while stealing devices.
Luger Guerrero, 26, of Manhattan is accused of pushing a FedEx driver to the ground along with others in order to take 15 Samsung devices on Sept. 13, 2024, and Felipe Batista, 22, of the Bronx, is accused of forcibly taking a package from a resident right after it was delivered on Sept. 18, 2024.
Leonel Tejeda Reynoso, 32, of the Bronx, is accused of faking his ID to steal an iPad Pro tablet worth over $1,000 from a Melville, New York, FedEx distribution center on Oct. 8, 2024.
Mr. Jerez is charged with one count of enterprise corruption, 10 counts of third-degree grand larceny, 28 counts of fourth-degree grand larceny, and 10 counts of petit larceny.
In addition, in Suffolk County he faces five other separate indictments, each on one count of fourth degree conspiracy, and in New Jersey he is facing federal charges of conspiracy to transport and receive stolen property and transportation of stolen property.
Mr. Jerez is due back in court on Dec. 15, and faces a minimum sentence of 1-3 years and a maximum sentence of 100 months to 25 years, if convicted for enterprise corruption.
Several of the other defendants also face enterprise corruption charges, along with charges for conspiracy, grand larceny, petit larceny and other more specific charges. Mr. Reynoso, for example, faces a charge of identity theft, while Mr. Guerrero and Mr. Batista face robbery charges.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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