Seven New Jersey men have been charged with stealing over a dozen luxury cars in both the Garden State and in New York, federal prosecutors announced Thursday. A Virginia man was involved in the car theft ring, but he had not yet been captured, according to a release from the U.S.
Attorney’s Office District of New Jersey. The investigation began in November 2021, when police began probing a series of high-end car thefts and learned that the eight men, and others conspired to possess, receive, conceal, sell, dispose, and/or transport the stolen vehicles cars in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and elsewhere, the office said. The 14 cars were stolen from all over the state, including a 2021 Auid Q5 from Jersey City in November 2021, a 2020 Range Rover stolen from Tenafly in April 2022, and a 2021 BMW M3 stolen from Spring Lake three months later, according to a criminal complaint.
They have an estimated total value of at least $550,000. Some of the stolen cars were used during the commission of other crimes, including the theft of additional cars, shootings, and a homicide, officials claimed. No other specifics on this aspect of the case were given Thursday.
From November 2021 to July 2022, one of the men charged, Ahmad Franks, 24, of Newark, exchanged photographs of at least 400 known or suspected stolen cars with at least a dozen conspirators, authorities said. In addition to Franks, the other men charged were fellow Newark residents Saquan White, 23,.