Four Paterson Men Charged with Stealing $450,000 in Checks from Dozens of Mail Collection Boxes in Passaic, Bergen, Morris, Essex, and Middlesex counties

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Four Paterson, New Jersey, men are charged for their roles in a scheme to break into U.S. Postal Service (USPS) mail collection boxes throughout northern New Jersey and steal the mail – particularly, checks – inside, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced today.

Aneuris Henriquez-Lopez, 24, Eleazer Peralta, 19, Fernando Santiago, 26, and Rikinson Rodriguez-Sanchez, 25, are each charged by complaint with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Henriquez-Lopez, Peralta and Santiago were arrested today and are scheduled to make their initial appearances this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Court Judge James B. Clark III in Newark federal court. Rodriguez-Sanchez remains at large.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

The defendants allegedly stole checks from USPS mail collection boxes in Passaic, Bergen, Morris, Essex, and Middlesex counties, and elsewhere, and fraudulently deposited those checks into various bank accounts, often within a day of being stolen. Some of the mail collection boxes were broken into with the use of pry bars, usually late at night. 

The conspiracy to commit bank fraud charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

U.S. Attorney Carpenito credited postal inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Newark Division, under the direction of Inspector-in-Charge James Buthorn, with the investigation leading to today’s charges. He also thanked the U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Marshals Service for their assistance with the investigation. 

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Macurdy of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark.

The charges and allegations in the complaint are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.