City investigators popped the clutch on a 17-month probe of an international motorcycle theft ring Wednesday, snatching up nearly three dozen people across the five boroughs accused of fencing high-end bikes and guns.
At least 10 guns and 50 expensive motorcycles were collected in the sweep, which was the culmination of a joint NYPD-Manhattan district attorney investigation deploying undercover officers posing as buyers and using extensive wiretaps to record conversations between the runners and the sellers.
The prosecutor in charge of the case, Diana Florence, said that runners would steal minivans, then drive around Manhattan looking for Ducati, Kawasaki and Husqvarna cycles parked on city streets. The thieves would load the coveted bikes into the back of their vans and drive off.
Maurin Cadet, 23, who works for a refrigerator company in Queens and lives with his mother, is accused of buying 18 motorcycles from the runners and selling them to undercover officers, according to Florence.
Odel Dawson, 23, who prosecutors say sold nearly a dozen bikes, showed an undercover officer a photograph of a handgun and offered to sell it to him.
Most of the 16 defendants arraigned Wednesday were held on at least $100,000 bail, though many, like Dawson, had no criminal history.
“He is charged with being a cog in the wheel of a larger scheme going on here,” Adam Freedman, Dawson’s lawyer said at his arraignment. “It’s unreasonably high bail based on the allegation.”
Prosecutors are charging 33 people with enterprise corruption related to the stolen bikes and gun sales. Sources said some of the stolen bikes were sold overseas.
Because some of the suspects in the ring had not yet been apprehended, the Manhattan DA refused to release any details on the case and Judge Marcy K. Kahn imposed a gag order, barring defense lawyers from discussing the case.
Prosecutors are expected to announce the full scope of the investigation at a news conference Thursday.
