Latest Accomplice of Four Member High-End Car Theft Ring Targeting Rockland Sentence to Prison After Guilty Plea

By Mindy Cohn

Another New Jersey resident heads to prison after four members of a $1.5M luxury car theft ring were apprehended by police.

After pleading guilty in Newark federal court  to conspiring to transport stolen vehicles in interstate commerce and receiving a stolen vehicle that had crossed state lines after being stolen, Malik Baker, 30, from Union County, has been sentenced after previously pleaded guilty,

As reported by Rockland Daily here, the gang members frequently used one stolen car while stealing a second one. One of the cars the gang stole was recovered at Port Newark from a shipping container headed for Ghana.

Baker was sentenced to under four years in prison plus three years of supervised release for his role in the theft of  $1.5 million in luxury cars from Rockland County, Long Island, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

Other vehicles the gang was responsible for stealing include a 2014 Lexus GS stolen from West Long Branch, NJ; a 2017 BMW M4 stolen from Marlton, NJ; a 2016 Mercedes-Maybach S600 stolen from Clifton, NJ; a 2017 Mercedes S550, a 2017 BMW Alpina and a 2019 Rolls Royce, stolen from Hewlett Bay Park, NY; a 2019 Land Rover stolen from Kensington, NY; a 2019 Mercede-Maybach stolen from Quogue, NY; a 2017 Mercedes AMG S63 stolen from Orangeburg, NY; and a 2019 BMW X4 M40i stolen from Greenwich, CT.

As for the other members of the gang, Hakeem Smith, from Newark, was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison after pleading guilty in April. Brick City resident Nafique Goodwyn was sentenced on February 27 to time served while Bilal Cureton, also from Brick City, is still awaiting sentencing.