By Michael Morton
“They were hitting the northern part of our precinct,” Lt. John Hall, director of special operations for the 105th, told an April 28 meeting of the community council about the gang accused in the rash of burglaries. Hall later said the affected areas in the precinct included Queens Village and Glen Oaks, among other neighborhoods.
The precinct stretches from Glen Oaks to the north and runs along the Nassau border through Queens Village, Rosedale, Laurelton and Springfield Gardens to Brookville in the south.
The burglary ring, a loosely associated group of Colombian immigrants known as the Codwise Gang, has been charged with ransacking 300 homes in northeast Queens and stealing an estimated $1.5 million in cash and jewelry, police said last week. The gang used walkie-talkies on the job and targeted Asian and South Asian homes, thinking they would have large stashes of cash or jewels, police said.
Two men and a male teenager, were arrested Dec. 23 near a Queens Village home after a pair of them allegedly broke into the house while the other acted as a lookout, police said.
Iban Rodriguez, 35, of 47-15 103rd St. in Corona and Hoover Garcia, 23, of 58-35 Granger St. in Corona were charged with burglary and possession of burglary tools and were next due in State Supreme Court in Kew Gardens on May 19, the Queens district attorney's office said. The name of the third suspect, 15, was not released because of his age and his status could not be determined.
Officer Joseph Marinello and Sgt. Brian Burke arrested Rodriguez and the 15-year-old near a Queens Village house after receiving a call about a break-in, police said. A plainclothes anti-crime team then found Garcia sitting in a car several blocks away, police said.
The three suspects, suspected Codwise members, helped provide information on the gang's operations and personnel, Hall said. Police now have arrested 52 of the ring's 58 members.
In response to a resident's question, Hall said Latino members of landscaping crews working in the area were not involved in the burglary ring, which had struck some houses in the precinct.
During the council meeting, held monthly at the precinct to give the community a chance to speak with police, audience members asked why they could no longer get detailed breakdowns of crime in their neighborhoods.
The 105th is divided into 14 sectors, and while the public can access monthly statistics for the precinct as a whole, the precinct stopped giving out numbers for specific sectors.
“As of right now we're flying blind,” said southeast Queens community activist Erick Bowen. “We don't know if what you see is what we see.”
Bowen asked how community members were supposed to know if crime on their block had gone up or down according to the police. Deputy Inspector Thomas Manzolillo, commander of the 105th, replied that his superiors held him accountable for all the sectors in his precinct.
If the precinct had a poorly performing sector, “I can ensure you, I would be moved out right now,” Manzolillo said.
Hall said that when the precinct issued statistics for the sectors in the past, community meetings became unwieldy. “He doesn't have time to explain 15 crimes to everyone,” he said of Manzolillo. “No one's going to be happy” if that becomes the case again, Hall said.
But an audience member said in response, “If you live on the corner you need to know what's going on.”
Officers from the 105th said that in the future they would call civic leaders if a major crime occurred in their sector. Manzolillo acknowledged an increase in shootings in the precinct so far this year and said the 105th is focusing on those areas where the crimes took place.
Said the commander about his personnel resources: “They are being placed at the right place at the right time.”
Reach reporter Michael Morton by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by calling 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
