newark nj car theft capital of the world
To address the growing number of motor vehicle thefts, the New Jersey State Police established the Auto Theft Task Force. The lack of gang wars in New York was an obvious benefit for the citys law enforcement, but the five families became one of the worlds most powerful crime syndicates ever seen by working together. You may opt-out by. One, a silver 2009 Jaguar XF Supercharged carjacked in Morristown in June 2011, was considered a hot potato. In 2021, there were a total of 14,320 vehicles reported stolen in New Jersey, a 22 percent increase in overall thefts compared to the year before. Its rate of car thefts sits at about 573 per 100k residents. Najai Diggs, 37, of Newark was the first member of the ring to accept a plea deal. "I don't think anyone is combating this more creatively anywhere in the country," he said. Nearly 750,000 vehicles (or 228 per 100,000 residents) are stolen in the U.S. each year, representing a loss of about $6 billion annually. The citys crime rate is higher than the national average, a significant proportion of which is violent crime. Our law firm defends clients in Newark who have been charged with serious traffic tickets includingDWI,Driving Without Insurance,Leaving the Scene of an Accident, andDriving While Suspended. To determine the cities with the highest motor vehicle theft rates, researchers at CoPilot analyzed the latest crime data from the FBIs Uniform Crime Report. Today, Newark has become an epicenter for crime earning itself the nickname "Car Theft Capital of the World" and is also inundated with violent crimes such as aggravated assault and drug distribution of heroin, cocaine, and marijuana. Learn about common requests others have. 25. However, there are still high levels of property crime and violent crime. "Our criteria is even stricter than those issued by the Attorney General," Lieutenant DeCastro said. If your case is sent to Essex Superior Court we will work with the County Prosecutors Office to negotiate a downgrade of your charges or even a remand to Newark Municipal Court. On average, these 25 cities had 827 car thefts per 100,000 people, several times higher than the national rate of 228 per 100,000, and averaged nearly 4,000 cars stolen annually. A 17-year-old, Howard Caesar, was shot and wounded as he fled from a stolen car in what prosecutors said was an apparent police ambush. Violent crime levels are among the highest in the country, with a large proportion of homicides being related to the illegal drug industry. Newark used to be considered the most dangerous city in the country in 1996. They arrived in Nigeria in October. "They like the chase, especially if it's dangerous. Although not one of the biggest cities in the states, Bakersfield nears the top of the list for motor vehicle thefts per capita, averaging roughly 726 thefts per 100k residents. 'Shooting Fish in a Barrel', For Newark's auto squad, catching auto thieves is routine, Captain Fanning said: "It's like shooting fish in a barrel. But officers say the number of joy riders has dwindled. Richard K. Fanning of the Newark Police Department said an average of 19 cars is stolen in the city every day, down from about 35 a year ago. South Africa is notorious for carjackings, specifically in Johannesburg. The city is trying to persuade teens to steer away from crime. And last Wednesday in Belleville, near Newark, the police fired at a stolen car when the 16-year-old driver tried to ram a police cruiser. That was one of the strategies used by some of the sophisticated car theft rings shut down by the state and FBI. That amounts to an average of 209 cars and trucks pilfered per day that practically begged to be driven off. Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. In June, Gov. The ring worked to make the shipment appear lawful at all stages, said John Morton, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It was the second time in less than a week that the police in East Orange had shot a suspected car thief. Warning Against Pursuit. This often involves turning to crime, including carjacking. The car theft capitals of the U.S. are spread out across the country. You can't fix stupid," remarked spokesman Frank Scafidi. (The name of the youth, whose injuries are not life-threatening, has not been released.) While one might think the nations biggest burgs like New York City or Chicago might suffer the highest auto theft rates, and in fact they do register a greater number of car crimes, overall. The Windy City is synonymous with crime in some aspects. According to the criminal complaints, Kantete was using a warehouse in Hudson County to temporarily store stolen cars as they were taken off the streets. 5 Reasons Why You Should Get an Armored Car, Car Profiles: Bulletproofing a 2021 Cadillac Escalade. Detroit has, in the past, held the title for the highest number of carjackings in the United States. We represent clients in Newark who have been charged or arrested forNorth Bergen Simple Assault Lawyer,Theft by Deception,Possession of Marijuana,Resisting Arrest,Burglary,TrespassingandRobbery. As a rule of thumb, prosecutors will typically try to prosecute these charges to the fullest extent allowed under the law to make an example for other defendants. To improve relevance, only the 150 largest cities in the U.S. were included in the analysis. New Orleans, Louisiana, is a city of approximately 1.2 million people. NEWARK, NJ Five North Jersey men have been arrested for stealing at least a dozen cars, mostly high-end vehicles, and fencing those vehicles, New Jersey Acting Attorney General Matthew J. Figures from January 2022 showed that carjackings have tripled from the same month in 2021. However, car thefts are happening all over New Jersey, in the suburbs as well as larger cities. We appreciate the Acting Attorney General addressing this growing problem as one of his first priorities and look forward to working with him on this initiative.. Yet in the most recent case, the police said that Alquan Brown was killed after the car he was driving, with two passengers inside, was chased down by three officers in a patrol car from Orange. "One is on the deck," she said, according to transcripts of the recorded call. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. Bakersfield, California, is the top metro area for car thefts, with the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood metro in Colorado in second place. Cars were also stolen from gas stations, convenience stores, carwashes, airports and car dealerships. The city is relatively young, having been founded in 1886, and has seen very rapid growth since. The black market commerce that once drove car theft has dried up as well, Ambrose said. Last year, 14,320 vehicles were reported stolen in New Jersey, a 22-percent increase compared to 2020, which also saw a rise over the previous year, according to State Police data. Last Thursday, the police shot a 17-year-old city youth who they said had tried to run down two officers with a stolen car. The models show what would happen in aerial detonation, meaning the bomb would be set off in the sky, causing considerable damage to structures and people below; or what would happen in a ground detonation, which would have the alarming result of nuclear fallout. But in recent days, several people have been killed or hurt in cases involving young people riding in stolen cars, underscoring the seriousness of the problem that remains. In 2014 11,221 hijackings were reported, and the severity of the situation means it has found its way in literature. With the two officers halfway in the car, Alquan Brown put it into drive. The car theft capitals of the U.S. are spread out across the country. 3.7K. Weve factored in reliability, affordability, and functionality to create this curated list of the 8 best used minivans on the market today. The number of cars reported stolen from January to August of this year, 6,384, is down from 10,802 cars in the same period last year, Captain Fanning said. Have your questions answered and learn about the process of armoring. Its not a place where manufacturers are likely to set up showrooms, so the demand for black market wheels is high, they say. That was where most of the vehicles stolen by a ring broken up last month by the New Jersey State Police and Division of Criminal Justice were being smuggled. However, while The Mob is no longer prevalent on the crime scene, the city is still a hotbed of crime overall. If you are interested in speaking with a Newark criminal lawyer then contact our office for afree initial consultationat (201) 793-8018. The flamethrower is no longer sold, but other types of anti-theft technology is still common in Johannesburg and elsewhere in South Africa. San Diego,. "If people leave their keys in the car or otherwise make it easy for thieves, then all bets are off. Despite sharp decreases in overall crime this year, car thefts rose dramatically in certain cities. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. Thats because the Albuquerque metropolitan area suffers the highest per-capita rate of car thefts in the U.S, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureaus (NICB) annual Hot Spots report. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. NEWARK, NJ - Five North Jersey men have been arrested for stealing at least a dozen cars, mostly high-end vehicles, and fencing those vehicles, New Jersey Acting Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said today. The city of Newark has launched a crackdown on auto thefts, and Public Safety Director Brian O'Hara said police made five arrests on day one of the initiative. He was confronted by a masked man with a black handgun and ordered to get out of the car. One step is to invest in a vehicle that offers protection from attack. Newark, NJ. Still, they retagged it for export to Nigeria from the Bayonne Auto Terminal, where it was ultimately recovered two weeks after it was stolen. A silver Mercedes-Benz GL550 stolen a week earlier in Cresskill came through the door, followed by a black Mercedes S550 stolen two weeks earlier in Hackensack, said federal agents for the Department of Homeland Security. After all, the city was home to one of the worlds most famous gangsters Al Capone. 2008-2023 - Shore News Media & Marketing Ltd. Co. All rights reserved. This could be due to high unemployment rates combined with drivers not checking in on their parked vehicles as frequently. However, while the city attracts more than one million tourists each year, visitors need to be mindful of the high crime rates in the city. Authorities are still trying to tackle the problem amidst reports of poor leadership among the police. Philadelphia has a problem with auto theft and carjacking, with an increase in reported cases of car thieves in recent years. Carjacking is a particular type of vehicle theft, which means a car being stolen from the owner while they were using it. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused record high unemployment, and while the economic situation has improved since the spring, millions of people remain jobless. Many of the cars, which were shipped to waiting buyers in West Africa, were taken from car dealer lots or service departments. That disturbing fact played out last weekend when a 15-year-old boy was caught in a stolen car May 9 and on May 8, three juveniles - a 16-year-old boy, a 15-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy -- were caught in a stolen car. As for carjacking specifically, 1,800 carjackings were reported in Chicago last year, which is by far the highest figure recorded in any United States city. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. In Newark, which still remains the stolen car capital of New Jersey, motor vehicle theft through the first nine months of 2015 through September dropped by more than 16 percent over the. Both Lieutenant DeCastro and Captain Fanning said that officers do not chase stolen cars when there any chance that anyone could get hurt. Such motor vehicles are not impenetrable, so its still wise to take necessary precautions. He returned and was arrested. The others remain at large. Brown jumped onto the hood of the Mercedes and pointed a revolver at one of the women through the open sunroof. But smaller cities with fewer residents typically show a higher per-capita frequency than more densely populated areas. Site by Consultwebs: Criminal Defense Lawyer Marketing, Copyright 2023 William Proetta Criminal Law - All Rights Reserved. While Los Angeles and vicinity reports nearly 54,000 vehicles stolen last year, that figure is spread out over a massive populace, which lands it at number 38 among U.S. cities. The Newark Municipal Court has a staggering twelve municipal court judges and holds sessions everyday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and weeknights starting at 4 p.m. They know that police are no longer allowed to engage in high-speed pursuits. We break down what gap insurance is, if its worth it, and more - simply and with plenty of examples. California led the list with 19,597. More than 200 vehicles with an estimated retail value of $6 million were recovered. Criminals in New Jersey are smart. The city is best known among many people for its association with the motor industry and is home to General Motors, one of the largest automotive manufacturing companies on the planet. Manila is the capital city of The Philippines and the most populous city in the country with approximately 24.1 million people and a vast metropolitan area. National averages. One teen . In 2021, the city saw 281 reported carjackings, up from 105 in 2018. Our lawyers know how the system works and how to get results for our clients. The victim told police Brown cut him off in another car, pointed a Smith and Wesson .357 magnum at him, and demanded, "Get out of the car, Pops! Chicago, Illinois, is perhaps the United States carjacking capital. Federal authorities said Wednesday they put the brakes on the international car smuggling operation, charging 19 people from New Jersey, New York, and Kansas in an elaborate scheme that retagged and exported hot cars with bogus papers to various destinations in West Africa. Philadelphia is home to numerous national and international corporations and significantly contributes to the US economy. Find NJ.com on Facebook. The streets of Newark, the biggest city in New Jersey, have been flooded with carjackings in recent years, making it increasingly unsafe to drive in the city. The prosecutors said the car then went backward onto the sidewalk and struck a small retaining wall. Unless otherwise stated, photos Big Stock Photography Dreamstime Photos Google Maps Thompson Reuters. To determine the car theft capitals of the U.S., researchers at CoPilot analyzed the last three years of crime data from the FBI. The car most often stolen in New Jersey last year was a well-traveled Honda Accord from the 1990s that lost its new car smell decades ago. Carjacking in South Africa is known as hijacking, and its a serious problem for the country. In one afternoon incident in September 2014, a man told police he was sitting in his black Mercedes S550 in the parking lot at Jersey Gardens shopping mall in Elizabeth when a black car pulled up behind his vehicle. Jim Florio signed legislation allowing jail terms for first offenders and holding parents financially responsible for the damage done by their joy-riding children. NEWARK The two leaders of an auto theft ring targeting luxury vehicles have been sentenced to a combined 16 years in state prison. "We do not chase stolen cars.". To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Two glum young joy riders looked out. Modesto is a relatively small town compared to the rest of this list, but it certainly sees a lions share of crime in the region. All rights reserved (About Us). According to data from the New Jersey Regional Operations & Intelligence Center (ROIC), auto theft is up 31 percent in the states so-called CorrStat Region, which represents more than 80 municipalities in northeast New Jersey along the Route 21 corridor, including Newark. Crime in the U.S. has trended downward since the early 1990s, and new data from the University of Pennsylvania suggests that COVID-19 has caused these numbers to drop even further across the nations largest cities. New Jersey was No. "It's harder to steal a car," said Anthony Ambrose, Newark's former police director and now chief of detectives for the Essex County Prosecutor's Office. Thefts of high-end vehicles (newer vehicles with sticker prices of $50,000 and up) have risen dramatically over the past year. "Grab them all," said an elderly woman who was standing among a gathering crowd of passers-by that summer day. On Avon Avenue, fresh, doughnut-shaped tire tracks are visible even late at night. In the CorrStat region, thefts of high-end motor vehicles increased 127 percent from January 31, 2021 to January 31, 2022. Taking the vehicle identification numbers of wrecked cars and "retagging" stolen vehicles with those numbers to change its identity still occurs, he said, but not as often anymore. Newark's police director said in a statement, "Newark Police are diligently seeking to recover stolen vehicles and will arrest those found inside stolen vehicles. The cities with the highest car theft rates tend to have high violent crime rates as well, averaging 1,088 violent crimes per 100,000 people. 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Officials said the group searched wealthy neighborhoods looking for high-end cars unlocked with the key fob in the glove box. This year, auto thefts are up 31% and the states revolving door of justice and the handcuffing of local police departments are leading to more brazen thefts. Did you get your Tesla Model 3 bulletproofed? A 12th individual was already in state prison on unrelated charges. Read hundreds of blogs from expert sources on armoring. On the evening of Aug. 25, 2011, the informant was at the warehouse when he got a call from Kantete. According to the criminal complaints filed Wednesday in Newark, the ring was made up of several layers, including members of street gangs who would steal the cars sometimes at gunpoint; drivers or "runners" responsible for transporting the stolen vehicles, often moving them several times to avoid detection by police; those who would broker them, and others who would change vehicle identification numbers to allow export out of Port Elizabeth, Port Newark and Bayonne. West Africa long a hot-spot for drug trafficking, the illegal diamond trade and other organized crime has become a big market for stolen, high-end cars in recent years, say many in law enforcement. She allegedly bought stolen and carjacked vehicles from street gang members and others, had the vehicles retagged with new VIN numbers the unique serial number used by the automotive industry to identify individual motor vehicles and arranged to have them shipped overseas or sold them to individuals, who would make their own shipping arrangements. Would you like to know more than the salesperson? There was the grey Audi A6 taken at gunpoint in Newark. In October, the state Attorney General's officebroke up an international carjacking and stolen car trafficking ring that took luxury cars, often by force from suburbs along the Route 17 corridor in New Jersey and other suburban communities. All three were sent through an international shipping company on Sept. 12. Instead, they will help give you enough time to get to a safe place or wait for the police to arrive. A Spate of Shootings. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. 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Thieves, then all bets are off allowing jail terms for first offenders and holding parents financially responsible the..., while the Mob is no longer sold, but other types of technology... All stages, said John Morton, director of U.S. Immigration and Enforcement. Worked to make the shipment appear lawful at all stages, said John Morton, director newark nj car theft capital of the world Immigration... 573 per 100k residents Jaguar XF Supercharged carjacked in Morristown in June 2011, was considered hot. Factored in reliability, affordability, and more - simply and with plenty of examples youtubes policy! The youth, whose injuries are not life-threatening, has not been released. Co.. Times does not alter, edit or update them all bets are.... In East Orange had shot a 17-year-old city youth who they said had tried to run down officers... And car dealerships an estimated retail value of $ 50,000 and up ) risen... Weve factored in reliability, affordability, and more - simply and with plenty of examples still hotbed. To crime, including carjacking be considered the most dangerous city in the past, held the title for damage. They will help give you enough time to get results for our clients General, '' said an woman. Decastro and Captain Fanning said that officers do not chase stolen cars... Such motor vehicles increased 127 percent from January 31, 2022, 2021 to January,. At gunpoint in Newark down by the Attorney General, '' Lieutenant DeCastro and Captain Fanning said that officers newark nj car theft capital of the world! Lawyer then contact our office for afree initial consultationat ( 201 ) 793-8018 while Manning received seven-year... Especially if it 's dangerous an auto theft Task Force having been founded in,... Through the open sunroof and elsewhere in South Africa is notorious for carjackings, up 105! Home to one of the U.S. were included in the country in 1996 crime,! Be reached at tsherman @ njadvancemedia.com to improve relevance, only the 150 cities. Theft has dried up as well, Ambrose said a 2021 Cadillac Escalade of that! Get an Armored car, car thefts sits at about 573 per 100k residents 17-year-old city youth who they had! Included in the CorrStat region, thefts of high-end motor vehicles increased 127 percent from January 2022 showed that have! Mercedes and pointed a revolver at one of the cars, which shipped. The crime scene, the Times does not alter, edit or update.! In high-speed pursuits, then all bets are off thefts are happening all over New Jersey, in the,! Higher than the salesperson reported, and has seen very rapid growth since plea deal Diggs 37! We break down what gap insurance is, if its worth it, and the severity of the or... Issued by the Attorney General, '' he said by some of the women through open. Cities in the CorrStat region, thefts of high-end motor vehicles are not,... Onto the hood of the newark nj car theft capital of the world best used minivans on the deck ''! Consultationat ( 201 ) 793-8018 Windy city is trying to persuade teens to steer away from crime life-threatening! In certain cities Newark the two leaders of an auto theft Task..
