The alleged ringleader of the “porch pirate” ring and 13 others in the crew were indicted Monday, the Suffolk County District Attorney announced.
The “sophisticated ‘porch pirate’ criminal organization” targeted FedEx packages containing electronic devices in 31 communities stretching from Huntington to Montauk, district attorney Ray Tierney said in a statement.
More than 200 phones from AT&T and Verizon were stolen as part of the scheme — some just moments after they were dropped off.
Prosecutors allege the group obtained information — such as racking numbers, delivery addresses and recipient names — via hacking to plan when to swipe packages. In other cases, they changed the delivery address to make stealing the items even easier.
Several of the thefts, which occurred between October 2023 to February 2025, were caught on surveillance video at the victims’ residences. officials said.
The stolen phones were stashed in the Bronx, sold to a fencer and then later sold to different wholesalers who operate domestically and overseas, officials said.
“For two years, this alleged porch pirate ring plagued our community and built a criminal enterprise on the backs of Suffolk families and businesses,” Tierney said in a statement.
“They were particularly targeting those blocks of cellular phones for the purposes of taking them and then bringing them to the Bronx, and the location in the Bronx would pay top dollar for those phones.”
Andricson Jerez, the 29-year-old accused ringleader, was charged with felony enterprise corruption, grand larceny, conspiracy and other charges. His bond was set at $75,000. He faces up to 25 years if convicted of enterprise corruption.
The 13 other defendants are accused of retrieving packages for Jerez, or were involved in redistributing the devices.
