Two New Jersey men were criminally charged for participating in an international stolen merchandise ring based in Kew Gardens Hills and diverting products meant for large-scale beauty retailers, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Wednesday.
Leudy Marte, 28, of Perth Amboy, and Wilton Pena de Dios, 28, of Port Reading, were arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on Jan. 10 on charges of grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and conspiracy for their roles in the retail theft and fencing operation.
The defendants diverted more than $1 million in products from Sol de Janeiro, a skincare and beauty manufacturer, that were destined for retailers such as Ulta Beauty and Sephora and delivered them instead to the alleged ringleaders of the operation in Kew Gardens Hills.
Several members of the alleged theft crew were arrested and charged just before Black Friday in November as part of an operation Katz dubbed “Fashionably Fencing.”
Undercover operatives made controlled merchandise purchases from the suspects after contacting them via social media. The first set of arrests marked the first time in New York that anyone was charged for the crime of fostering the sale of stolen goods, a new measure passed by the state legislature and signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul to stop the sale of stolen goods through both online platforms and brick-and-mortar locations.
According to the charges in the most recent arrests, Marte and Pena de Dios allegedly stole merchandise from a warehouse in Edison, NJ. Sol de Janeiro retained the warehouse to distribute its products to retailers like Sephora and Ulta. Marte was a warehouse employee while Pena de Dios was a former employee of the same warehouse.
On Sept. 26 and two dates in November, Marte is alleged to have taken items from the warehouse without permission and loaded them onto a truck owned by the warehouse. The alleged thefts occurred after business hours and the truck he used was the only company truck without GPS monitoring. On those dates, Pena de Dios rented a truck and drove it to the location in New Jersey, where he met Marte and transferred the merchandise from the warehouse truck to the rental vehicle.
Pena de Dios then drove the rental truck to a storage facility in Oakland, NJ, where some of the stolen items were stored. On the September and November dates, a Tesla and an SUV belonging to two alleged members of the fencing operation arrived at the facility. Items were transferred from the rental truck to their vehicles and into the storage facility.
A search warrant executed at the storage facility on Nov. 26 led to the discovery of hundreds of boxes containing thousands of cosmetic products from the same cosmetics manufacturer. The items are valued at more than $500,000.
“These defendants, as alleged, stole skincare and beauty products from the manufacturer, loading them onto trucks before the goods even made it to store shelves,” Katz said. “They are alleged participants in a sprawling retail theft and fencing operation that was based in Queens and dismantled after an investigation by my office and our law enforcement partners.”
Search warrants previously executed at three locations in Queens led to the discovery of more than 31,000 stolen cosmetic products from the same manufacturer worth more than $800,000.
The fencing operation is alleged to have been directed from Queens by members of the fencing organization. They allegedly purchased large quantities of stolen retail cosmetic goods, beauty products, perfume, designer clothing, and accessories from numerous theft crews that stole from retailers up and down the East Coast. The organization received approximately $50,000 worth of stolen goods per week, for which they paid the theft crews approximately 10 to 15% of retail value. The goods were then cataloged and sold in New York through online advertisements and from a brick-and-mortar boutique in the Dominican Republic.
After becoming aware of the theft ring, investigators from the Queens DA’s Office, New York State Police, and Homeland Security Investigations New York launched an undercover investigation. The operation was alleged to have taken in $2 million in sales in two years.
Court-authorized search warrants executed at the three locations used by the fencing ring in Queens on Nov. 22 resulted in the seizure of over 50,000 retail beauty products, including thousands of products allegedly stolen from the Jersey warehouse by Marte and Pena de Dios.
They were arraigned before Judge Germaine Auguste, who ordered them to return to court on Jan. 21. If convicted, they face up to 8 ⅓ to 25 years in prison.
“Retail theft hurts both businesses and consumers,” Katz said. “And we will use all tools available to us to stop it.”
