Three illegal immigrants allegedly made off with over a million dollars worth of stolen Apple gadgets after a brazen, armed, broad day hijacking of a delivery truck outside a Nassau County mall in January.
Michael Mejia-Nunez, 29, Alan Christhofer Cedeno-Ferrer, 27, and Ennait Alexis Sirett-Padilla, 24, all allegedly took part in an 8 a.m. robbery outside of the upscale Americana Manhasset mall at the start of the year — taking two guards hostage.
They then allegedly forced one of their hostages to drive to a nearby location, zip-tying and locking them in the back of the truck in sub-freezing temperatures and unloading the more than $1.2 million worth of Apple products into a rented van before taking off to New Jersey, where they transferred the goods to another rental truck, prosecutors said.
One of the guards luckily broke free after the alleged thieves left and was able to call for help, but prosecutors said the situation could’ve easily turned fatal due to the freezing temperatures had they not broken free.
“As alleged, these defendants committed a violent and brazen daytime robbery that terrorized the victims and endangered the public at one of the most popular shopping centers on Long Island,” United States Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said.
“The defendants allegedly held two innocent employees at gunpoint before hijacking and robbing their delivery truck out of selfish greed,” he added.
Prosecutors detailed that they allegedly have a trove of evidence against them, including a web of surveillance footage, cell phone location data, fingerprints, the fake IDs used to rent the trucks, stolen Apple products, and even their own “unique” clothing police recovered that they said tracks them through nearly every step of the heist.
The trio — all illegal immigrants from the Dominican Republic — were arrested and hauled before a federal judge in Central Islip on Thursday, where all three pleaded not guilty.
Judge Anne Shields told the court that the evidence against the three is “very strong,” and the crime was a “well planned and violent attack” in broad daylight before remanding them without bail after prosecutors argued they posed both a danger to the community and a serious flight risk.
And despite the serious charges against them — facing deportation and up to 30 years in federal prison if convicted on the top count — Mejia-Nunez didn’t seem too worried about his predicament.
As his attorney and an interpreter were explaining the case to him before the judge took the bench, the 29-year-old was barely listening and kept his eyes trained on his wife in the gallery — blowing her kisses, smiling, winking and seductively raising his eyebrows at her while his attorney spoke.
The woman was later spotted laughing in the courtroom after all three were remanded.
Family members of the three alleged thieves later threatened reporters outside of court.
