15 held in Jax Hts. jewelry store bust
Flushing Times Ledger, NY
A sting operation in a Jackson Heights jewelry store led to the arrests of 15 individuals on a variety of cha ges including that they were selling or fencing more than $100,000 worth of items suc as gol
The loosely knit group, whose ages ranged from 14 to 36, allegedly robbed apartment buildings and then brought the illicit merchandise to the store, where they sold hundreds of pieces of jewelry over a four-month period, DA Richard Brown said.
The defendants, many of whom are teenagers from Elmhurst, are allegedly “responsible for committing numerous home invasions in burglaries over the last several months and fencing the property stolen during those burglaries for a fraction of its true value at a jewelry store surreptitiously being operated by undercover police officers,” the DA said.
Four men have been arraigned, while the other 11 are awaiting arraignment, prosecutors said. Three individuals are still being sought, they said.
Some of the defendants are facing up to 15 years in prison if convicted on all charges, the DA said.
