WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2005
D.A. BROWN: BROOKLYN MAN WHO STOLE
MOTORCYCLES AS PART OF THEFT RING IS CAUGHT AND CONVICTED AGAIN
Faces Up to Six Years in Prison
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that a Brooklyn man convicted of participating in a multi-state motorcycle theft ring earlier this year and conditionally discharged has now pleaded guilty to similar charges. He is expected to be sentenced to three to six years in prison on the most recent case and to be resentenced to a concurrent term of one to three years on the earlier case.
District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Adam Alvarez, 33, of 196 Kingsland Avenue in Brooklyn. Alvarez was originally charged in January 2005 with being part of a motorcycle theft and fencing ring comprised of 16 individuals – including fences, locators and “steal men” – that stole more than 81 imported and domestic motorcycles valued at over $1 million from owners in the Greater New York, Connecticut and New Jersey areas. The motorcycles were then taken to chop shops for disassembly and the parts sold on the Internet to purchasers in the western half of the United States, as well as to individuals in Europe and Australia. Alvarez was allegedly employed as one of the ring’s “steal men” who stole motorcycles from the street and from private homes and drove or hauled them by van back to garages in Flushing and Whitestone. It is alleged that the “steal men” would sell the stolen motorcycles to the fences for up to $2,500 each and that the fences would sell the engines alone for up to $2,500 and other motorcycle parts for up to $5,000. In February 2005, Alvarez pleaded guilty to Attempted Enterprise Corruption and was sentenced to a conditional discharge, one of the conditions being that he lead a law-abiding life.
District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant was given an opportunity earlier this year to turn his life around but instead foolishly chose to squander the offer by continuing to wheel and deal in stolen motorcycles. As a result, he now faces substantial prison time in which to reflect on his crimes.”
According to the District Attorney, Alvarez was arrested on August 11, 2005, and charged with possessing a stolen 1994 Dodge Caravan that contained two motorcycles that had been reported stolen from the garage of a Jackson Heights apartment building earlier that day. According to the complaint filed in that case, a surveillance camera in the garage revealed the unauthorized Dodge mini-van entering and exiting the garage at approximately the same time the two motorcycles – a 2005 Honda CBR and a 2004 Suzuki – were stolen. Later in the day, in Maspeth, police from the New York Police Department’s Auto Crime Division observed the defendant with another man, George A. Cano, 28, of 177 Maujer Street in Brooklyn, in the vicinity of the mini-van and in possession of burglar’s tools – including a “grinder” which is used to cut and remove heavy duty locks.
The defendant Alvarez appeared yesterday before Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard L. Buchter and pleaded guilty to Burglary in the Third Degree. Justice Buchter set sentencing for October 6, 2005, at which time he indicated that he would sentence the defendant to three to six years in prison on the burglary plea, and re-sentence him to a concurrent prison term of two to six years for violating the conditions of his earlier release.
District Attorney Brown noted that George Cano also pleaded guilty yesterday to Criminal Possession of Stolen Property in the Fifth Degree before Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard L. Buchter. He is expected to be sentenced to a three-year conditional discharge on October 6, 2005.
Assistant District Attorney Ishak David Akyuz, of the District Attorney’s Organized Crime and Rackets Bureau under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Gerard A. Brave, Chief, and Marc P. Resnick, Deputy Chief, and Assistant District Attorney Peri A. Kadanoff, Unit Chief, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Peter A. Crusco and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Linda M. Cantoni.