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New York prosecutors say they’ve busted up a sophisticated porch pirate ring in which the alleged thieves hacked into tracking information that investigators say led them to high-value packages as soon as they were delivered.
“The conspirators seemed to be waiting for the packages,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told reporters this week.
With the holiday shopping season underway, he is urging shoppers to be aware of when their packages are expected to be delivered and to bring them inside right away.
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The investigation spanned from October 2023 to February 2025 and resulted in a sweeping indictment announced this week.
In at least one case, they didn’t even wait for the packages to be dropped off — with surveillance video showing a group of crooks rushing a driver as he walked across a busy street with a package of 15 Samsung tablets, then jumping into a waiting getaway car. In another incident, the thieves allegedly followed a homeowner into her house after she brought a package inside, so they could steal it, Tierney said.
Other incidents, caught on home security cameras, show thieves swiping packages minutes after FedEx delivery drivers dropped them off.
The group was so prolific, the DA said, that law enforcement noticed an uptick in porch piracy crimes. The ring is also accused of having packages shipped to “fictitious” individuals at other addresses, just so they could be stolen, Tierney said.
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FedEx said in a statement that the entire shipping industry is working “proactively” with law enforcement to combat the rise in sophistication among thieves.
Most of the suspects are from New York City. One is from Yonkers, and another is from Valley Stream, in Nassau County. They are accused of targeting working-class and wealthy communities in Suffolk County, a suburban area that covers the eastern half of Long Island.
They allegedly hacked into data that held FedEx shipping info for devices from Verizon and AT&T and monitored deliveries before stealing them, Tierney said. Exactly how the information was accessed is still under investigation.
Prosecutors identified the alleged ringleader as 29-year-old Bronx resident Andricson Jerez. He and 13 accused accomplices face 50 felony charges altogether.
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The ring is accused of using insider information to home in on packages with smartphones and other valuable electronics inside.
“Most incidents (and all charged) involved residents who legitimately ordered phones,” a spokesperson for Tierney’s office told Fox News Digital. “The defendants would obtain the tracking information for the legitimately ordered phones and steal the package from the destination almost simultaneously with the delivery. However, we also have evidence that at least one of the runners was using a stolen identity and placing orders with that stolen identification.”
The operation included a half-dozen “runners,” who are accused of traveling out to the suburbs to steal packages. Tierney’s office identified them as Wandy Almanzar Liranzo, 35, Jackson Suazo, 30, Alvaro Alvarez Fermin, no age given, Leonel Tejeda Reynoso, 32, Felipe Batista, 22, and Luger Guerrero, 26.
Jerez had four alleged “lieutenants” who acted as transporters of the stolen goods, according to prosecutors. They were identified as Luis Marte Tavares, 34, Eugenio Valencia, 35, Raimond Cabrera de Leon, 32, and Juan Baez, 48.
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That group is accused of delivering stolen goods from the stash house to three other alleged conspirators, identified as Fawaz Hameed, a 35-year-old who owns the Manhattan electronics store, Anzar Ali, 57, and Eddie Zaibak, 28.
They allegedly stole the goods, brought them to a stash house in the Bronx and sold some of them at a storefront on Broadway in Manhattan, a few blocks south of Herald Square. Jerez allegedly sold other stolen goods in bulk to wholesalers in the U.S. and abroad.
While executing a search warrant at the Bronx hideout, police recovered 200 new phones and more than $100,000 worth of other goods, according to the district attorney’s office. Images investigators took inside the building show dozens of new phones piled up, still in their packaging.
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Jerez faces similar charges in New Jersey, according to prosecutors, and the ring was allegedly operating up and down the East Coast. He was released on $75,000 bond.
Jerez, Marte Tavares and Cabrera de Leon are also facing federal charges.
Reynoso remains jailed on $50,000 bail. Fermin was arrested in New Jersey last year and later placed in ICE custody, where he accepted voluntary departure in July, prosecutors said.
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The other suspects have been placed on supervised release and had to surrender their passports. Some of them were freed without bail because their charges are ineligible under New York law.
Experts have a few other recommendations for keeping your holiday packages secure, including home security cameras, scheduling deliveries for when you know you’ll be at home, keeping in touch with your neighbors or even having packages delivered to your job if you won’t be home during the day.
According to an annual theft report from Security.org, one in four Americans has been the victim of porch piracy, and thieves have stolen more than $8 billion worth of merchandise nationwide in the past year.
Fox News’ Eric Shawn contributed to this report.
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