Police Break East Queens Burglar Ring

New Yorks Finest announced Sunday that it had cracked a burglary ring that plagued affluent communities throughout eastern Queens this winter.
Police Deputy Chief James Hall, who heads Patrol Borough Queens North, stated that 52 members of a loose-knit band of thieves known as the "Codewise Gang" have been arrested and an investigation to make further collars is proceeding. Members of the group are charged with pilfering a total of more than $1.5 million in cash and jewelry from homes in northeast neighborhoods, such as Bayside; to southern parts of the borough, like Ozone Park.
The thieves dens were located along Codewise Place in Corona. Burglars, all of whom hail from Cali, Colombia, lived at residencies along the street and collaborated at various levels, to commit more than 300 burglaries since January 1, 2004. The gang acted in small groups and would make quick daytime break-ins to homes, with as many as six jobs a day. Though most burglaries did not involve violence, one woman was raped during one of the break-ins.
Thirty-six members of the burglary team are currently in jail awaiting trial, Hall said. Sixteen are out on bail, also awaiting a court date. Three of those arrested who were subsequently released on bail have absconded from the United States. And three burglars associated with the gang are not been caught yet.
Police suspect the band of burglars may have plied their trade in other parts of New York, including Nassau and Suffolk counties, and in Connecticut, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
The arrests were first reported in a cover story in the March 17 to 23 issue of The Queens Courier, which detailed a jump in the number of break-ins in 2004 compared to the two previous years. The article stated that some precincts experienced as much as a 58% spike in burglaries for the first two months of the year, compared to 2003. In that story, police sources who spoke to The Queens Courier said increased patrols and other initiatives were instituted to quell the burglary swell. Police initiatives added to crack the case included NYPDs Burglary Larceny and Suppression Team, its Burglary Apprehension Module unit and a group of detectives who were specifically assigned to search for patterns and assemble important connections in the investigation. Police interviewed for that article also attributed the burglaries to a loose-knit group, but, at the time, did not identify it as the "Codewise Gang."