BERGEN COUNTY, NJ — A group of men with guns held up two people at their Bergen County home in June, while another person grabbed a nearby child to prevent them for calling police, prosecutors said Thursday.
Seven people have been charged in conjunction with the armed robbery and home invasion in Lyndhurst, said the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office on Thursday.
Prosecutors said that around 9:30 p.m. on June 6, two people arrived home to Lyndhurst and pulled into their garage. That's when "multiple" suspects in dark clothing pointed guns at them and stole jewelry, handbags, and other valuables from inside their house.
At the same time, prosecutors say, "an additional suspect forcefully restrained a juvenile victim, who was unrelated to the other victims, but happened to be in the area at the time of the armed robbery. The juvenile victim was grabbed from behind and their mouth was covered to prevent them from alerting nearby people to the armed robbery that was taking place."
Prosecutors and the Lyndhurst police began investigating and determined that some of the suspects had been watching the pair for days, and had followed them home from their workplace.
After a nationwide investigation, a juvenile and six adults from several states were arrested.
Those implicated in the robbery included: Freyberth Acosta Dominguez, 27, of Indianapolis; Carlos Aular Montoya, 25, of Buffalo, Freddy Marin Pacheco, 37, of the Bronx, Elvis Sanchez-Paez, 31, of Brooklyn, and Luis Suarez Vasquez, 18, of Chicago.
Related charges were filed against Ermenso Duran Maldonado, 31, of Newark and a 16-year-old juvenile who was 15 at the time of the crimes.
Dominguez, who is currently in jail in Indiana, was charged with two counts of first-degree armed robbery, first-degree home invasion burglary, and weapons charges.He will be extradited to Bergen County.
Vasquez is in jail in New York State on an unrelated matter. He was also charged with first-degree armed robbery, first-degree home invasion burglary, and weapons charges.
Sanchez-Paez was charged with the same offenses. He was caught in Wharton, N.J. and taken to the Bergen County Jail.
Pacheco was arrested in Mount Vernon, N.Y., last week and charged with the same offenses as the others.
The 16-year-old is in jail in Indiana and was charged as a juvenile with two counts of first-degree armed robbery, first-degree home invasion burglary, and weapons charges.
Last week, prosecutors and the Regional SWAT Team searched Maldonado's Newark home but did not find him, prosecutors said. He was charged in abstentia with the same offenses as the others, but remains at large.
Anyone with information about him, or related the case, can contact the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office Tips Line at
(201) 226-5532.
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