Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said Friday that a month-long investigation lead to the recent arrests on charges stemming from a kidnapping in North Arlington. A female victim, who was not identified, told police that several people in two cars had assaulted her boyfriend and thrown him into one of the vehicles.
The woman told police that one of the vehicles was a burgundy Acura, and provided a partial plate number, Molinelli said. Police found the car parked outside a President Street apartment building in North Arlington around 10 a. The two were brought in for questioning and charged with kidnapping and aggravated assault. Later that afternoon, Molinelli said that police identified the occupants of the second vehicle, a white Honda, as Garfield residents Harold Williams and Diana Rodrigues.
They were arrested at their Outwater Lane apartment and similarly charged. All of them are still being held at the Bergen County Jail, he said. The man told police that he was a former member of Sex Money Murder, but that he was trying to leave the set and had been avoiding his fellow gang members for months.
The man told investigators that seven Bloods had attacked him inside his girlfriend's truck and forced him into one of their cars at knifepoint. He said they then brought him to a nearby pier β either in Hoboken or Jersey City β and formally kicked him out of the gang before driving him into Passaic, assaulting him again, and releasing him. With three of the suspects still at large, Molinelli said police continued their investigation, apprehending Aurelio Valverde at his Lanza Avenue apartment in Garfield on July 5.
Weeks later, investigators identified Lorenzo Rosado as another suspect based on additional information and arrested him in Clifton on Friday, July Police made their final arrest in the case this Wednesday, charging Rendell Maldonado with kidnapping and aggravated assault after arresting him in Passaic.
