Thirteen members of an international network that stole thousands of shipments of iPhones and other electronic devices around the United States —including a Belleville man — were charged today, Acting U.S. Attorney Vikas Khanna, District of New Jersey, said.
Wilson Peralta Tavarez, 28, of Belleville, and a dozen others alleged criminals, were each charged in count one of a criminal complaint unsealed today with conspiracy to transport and receive stolen property.
In addition, Peralta Tavares was charged in count two of the criminal complaint with wire fraud conspiracy. Two others were charged with one count of transportation of stolen property.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
The defendants were part of an international and nationwide ring involved in the widespread theft of electronic device shipments from FedEx and other carriers. The ring identified valuable packages to steal through two primary means: The creation and use of automated computer scripts, developed by one defendant and others, to scrape data from the public and customer-facing tracking systems of FedEx and Victim-1, a major U.S. cellular provider; and bribing corrupt Victim-1 employees such as Peralta Tavares to provide confidential information about Victim-1 customers, including orders, names, tracking numbers and delivery addresses.
This criminal network operated in layers with some members, referred to as “dispatchers,” obtaining and selling the delivery information and others, referred to as “runners,” purchasing the delivery information and stealing the packages.
Three defendants operated a major “fence” location out of a residential building in the Bronx, where an almost constant stream of people brought stolen devices for sale. Another ran a fence location in Brooklyn where he received bulk deliveries of devices stolen across the country, stealing iPhones, iPads, Samsung phones and other electronic devices. On one occasion where FedEx security seized stolen iPhones from a shipment sent by two defendants, one complained to FedEx customer service that his iPhones had been stolen.
Then Peralta Tavarez and another were Victim-1 retail store employees who accepted bribe payments in exchange for providing confidential customer information from Victim-1’s order tracking system.
Three acted as dispatchers who sold and provided runners with delivery addresses, tracking numbers and customer names. They also directed runners to fence locations to sell the stolen devices.
Count one carries a maximum prison sentence of five years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross amount of gain or loss resulting from the offense. Count two carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross amount of gain or loss resulting from the offense. Counts three and four each carry a maximum prison sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross amount of gain or loss resulting from the offense.
“These defendants are alleged to have worked together as part of an international ring to steal thousands of expensive electronic devices, which caused millions of dollars of losses to the victims,” Khanna said. “They are alleged to have done so by harnessing technology through the use of computer scripts which gave them access to shipping information, including individuals’ names and their home addresses. My office will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to pursue these types of criminals no matter where in the world they are and seek justice for their victims.”
Khanna thanked the Dominican Republic’s Procuraduría Especializada Contra los Crímenes y Delitos de Alta Tecnología (PEDATEC), (Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for High Technology Crimes and Offenses) and HSI’s Newark Field Office for their collaboration in this matter.
In 2024 New Jersey experienced a surge of over 400 identified package thefts targeting cellular devices. To combat this threat, Union County Prosecutor’s Office (NJ) partnered with New Jersey State Police Real Time Crime Center North and FBI Newark to spearhead a task force of investigators from impacted jurisdictions along with federal, state, and county agencies to collaborate on emerging intelligence.
Through private-sector partnerships, collusive employees were identified. Prospective delivery information was also shared amongst the task force to proactively identify, surveil and arrest individuals involved in package theft within New Jersey.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.