3 Arrested In Multi-State ID Theft Ring, Prosecutor Says

Five Bronx, New York residents were charged Friday in connection with an identity theft and fraud ring that stemmed from a woman who tried using a stolen identity to purchase iPhones in November in Bergen County, said Acting Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir S. Grewal.

Closter police arrested Aimee Gonzalez, 20, in November after she attempted to buy iPhones from Verizon Wireless using a stolen identity. An investigation by the prosecutor’s office White Collar Crimes Unit and the Closter Police Detective Bureau showed that Gonzalez was a member of an organized identity theft ring that was responsible for thousands of dollars in fraudulent cellphone purchases, Grewal said.

The purchases were allegedly made using stolen identities at stores in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, Grewal said.

Two other people besides Gonzalez were arrested Friday: Francisco Gonzalez, 23, and Carmen Anglero, 44, both of the Bronx, New York. Two people from the Bronx were identified as co-conspirators and are fugitives, Grewal said: Carlos Montero, 31, and Eury Garcia Sosa, 32. All five were charged with conspiracy to traffic in the personal identifying information of another, a second-degree crime.

Aimee Gonzalez and Anglero allegedly impersonated victims and completed the illicit purchases, Gerwal said.

Garcia Sosa allegedly drove them to and from the Verizon stores and was “complicit” in the purchases.

Montero allegedly organized and supplied Aimee Gonzalez and Anglero with the stolen identifications; Gonzalez allegedly supplied the group with forged and fraudulent driver’s license and secondary forms of identification, Gerwal said.

Aimee and Francisco Gonzalez were arrested in New York where they were charged as fugitives and were lodged in local jails pending extradition hearings, the prosecutor said. Anglero is currently in the Montgomery County Jail in Pennsylvania.

Pictured, clockwise from left: Francisco Gonzalez, Aimee Gonzalez, Carmen Anglero, and Carlos Montero/Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office