{"id":28367,"date":"2015-12-22T09:00:28","date_gmt":"2015-12-22T17:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/gangs-migrate-from-drugs-to-white-collar-crimes\/"},"modified":"2015-12-22T09:00:28","modified_gmt":"2015-12-22T17:00:28","slug":"gangs-migrate-from-drugs-to-white-collar-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/gangs-migrate-from-drugs-to-white-collar-crimes\/","title":{"rendered":"Gangs migrate from drugs to white-collar crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK<\/strong> \u2014 The Van Dyke Money Gang in New York made off with more than $1.5 million this year \u2014 but it wasn\u2019t in gunpoint robberies or drug running, it was a Western Union money order scheme. In New Jersey, 111 Neighborhood Crips used a machine to make dozens of fake gift cards for supermarkets, pharmacies and hardware stores. In South Florida, gangs steal identities to file false tax returns.<\/p>\n

These aren\u2019t members of an organized Mafia or band of hackers. They\u2019re street crews and gangs netting millions in white-collar schemes like identity theft and credit card fraud \u2014 in some instances, giving up the old ways of making an illicit income in exchange for easier crimes with shorter sentences.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would you spend time on the street slinging crack when you can get 10 years under federal minimums when in reality you can just bone up on how to make six figures and when you get caught you\u2019re doing six months?\u201d said Al Pasqual, director of fraud security at the consulting firm Javelin Strategy and Research.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement officials say they see increasingly more gangs relying on such crimes. This year, more than three dozen suspected crew members have been indicted in separate cases around the country. Grand larcenies in New York City account for 40 percent of all crime last year \u2014 compared with 28 percent in 2001. About 5 percent of Americans nationwide have experienced some kind of identity theft, with Florida leading the country in complaints.<\/p>\n

New York Police Commissioner William Bratton wrote in an editorial in the city\u2019s Daily News last week that white-collar crime was being committed by gang members \u201cto an astonishing degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crews recruit bank account owners to help cash phony checks, they pay off crooked employees who skim credit card information using hand-held readers, and they buy identities online.<\/p>\n

Pasqual said for some, it was a replacement for other crime. \u201cFor some it\u2019s a supplement. They\u2019re earning the money to grow the other side of their business, using white-collar crime to fund gun running. For a lot of them this becomes their day to day. They travel the country when they get really good at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A task force created by federal officials in Florida has charged more than 400 people with causing more than $140 million in losses \u2014 including more than 60 charged three weeks ago \u2014 and officials say increasingly those arrested are gang members.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an organized crime \u2014 but not \u201cOrganized Crime,\u201d said Bill Maddalena, assistant special agent in charge of the white-collar branch of the Miami FBI office. \u201cThey\u2019re very well organized. They have to recruit people to help steal devices, cash the checks.\u201d<\/p>\n

And because gang members are engaging more in fraud, there are fewer turf wars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still an element of violence,\u201d Maddalena said. \u201cThere\u2019s less head-to-head competition. They\u2019re attacking the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

This violence can be more directly related to the crime, not like a drive-by shooting over a turf war that injures dozens. In a Manhattan case, authorities found a scrap of paper in the pocket of a gang shooting victim that had the identification of another person.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s often violence surrounding the crime, but not necessarily in committing the crime,\u201d said David Szuchman, chief of the investigation division at the district attorney\u2019s office in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

As officials crack down on one type of scam, criminals move on to the next. Gang members learn the craft from each other \u2014 but many are also millennials, \u201craised in a computer age, and they know how to use it,\u201d said Lt. Greg Besson of the NYPD\u2019s financial crimes task force.<\/p>\n

The nation\u2019s largest police department has revamped how it responds to financial crimes after officials started noticing street crews with recoded credit cards. Now, the grand larceny division brings in detectives from the gang unit and other divisions to work together.<\/p>\n

The Outlaw Gangsta Crips in Brooklyn made about $500,000 this year in a paycheck fraud scheme that involved obtaining a legitimate paycheck and then using the information to create and quickly cash phony checks before they were taken down. But they also robbed check-cashing stores and were charged with conspiracy to kill two people, authorities said. Most cases are pending.<\/p>\n

In Union County, New Jersey, the 111 Neighborhood Crips made tens of thousands in fake tax returns \u2014 and four of the 12 indicted this summer were also charged with murder and attempted murder in separate incidents. Their cases are pending.<\/p>\n

The Van Dyke crew operated out of a public housing development. Their scheme, uncovered this year, stretched along the East Coast, as far as north Boston and as south as Washington. They recruited bank account holders and then used more than 350 accounts to deposit fake money orders. A dozen suspected gang members and associated were arrested and charged by federal officials with bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. A trial for some of the defendants is scheduled for early next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 The Van Dyke Money Gang in New York made off with more than $1.5 million this year \u2014 but it wasn\u2019t in gunpoint robberies or drug running, it was a Western Union money order scheme. In New Jersey, 111 Neighborhood Crips used a machine to make dozens of fake gift cards for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":28368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-28367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28367"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=28367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}