Category: CNB CRIME

Gloucester Township Police Chaplain Program

GTPD Community Bulletin:

Did you know Gloucester Township Police Department has a Chaplain Program? Are you a clergy member who is looking to join the GTPD as a volunteer chaplain?

The Gloucester Township Police Department works together in a partnership with qualified religious leaders, regardless of denomination, who are available to respond during a crisis or time of need in providing a more personalized quality of service to the community. The goal is by having the Police & Clergy working together during certain crisis or incidents that a more comprehensive response will be given to those in need. The religious leader will perform tasks of a more emotional or social nature while the Officer handles those tasks that are of a law enforcement nature.

GTPD is sponsoring a basic police chaplain training through the Police Chaplain Training Program on February 10 and 11th, 2020. Please see the attached flyer for sign-up details.

For more information on the training contact 609-774-0283 or gwholden@comcast.net

For more information on how to become a chaplain with the Gloucester Township Police Department please contact: communityrelations@gtpolice.com or (856)228-4011

Address/Location

Gloucester Township Police Department

1261 Chews Landing Rd

Gloucester Township, NJ 08021

Contact

Emergency: 9-1-1

Non-emergencies: 856-228-4500

FBI Announces New Policy for Notifying State and Local Election Officials of Cyber Intrusions

Affecting Election Infrastructure

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced a new internal policy to clarify and guide the timely federal notification of appropriate state and local officials of cyber intrusions affecting election infrastructure.

Protecting the integrity of elections in the United States against criminal activity and national security threats is among the top priorities of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI. Cyber intrusions affecting election infrastructure have the potential to cause significant negative impacts on the integrity of elections. Understanding that mitigation of such incidents often hinges on timely notification, the FBI has established a new internal policy outlining how the FBI will notify state and local officials responsible for administering election infrastructure of cyber activity targeting their infrastructure.

The FBI’s new policy recognizes the necessity of notifying responsible state and local officials of credible cyber threats to election infrastructure. Each state has a designated person to serve as its chief state election official with ultimate authority over elections held in the state, which often includes certifying election results. However, most election infrastructure is owned and operated by local governments. Likewise, the local election process is overseen by local election officials. The FBI’s interactions regarding election security matters must respect both state and local authorities. Thus, the FBI’s new policy mandates the notification of a chief state election official and local election officials of cyber threats to local election infrastructure.

The new policy is informed by existing FBI policies surrounding cyber incident notification thresholds and cyber victim notification in general. The new policy, however, provides updated and additional guidance on the timely dissemination of notifications and/or threat reporting; the protection of victim information and disclosures; and coordination between FBI and other agencies in regard to election security for maximum impact. Decisions surrounding notification continue to be dependent on the nature and breadth of an incident and the nature of the infrastructure impacted.

It is the intent of the FBI that this new policy will result in increased collaboration between all levels of government for the integrity and security of U.S. elections.

Camden County Prosecutors Office to Observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Monday, January 20, 2020, the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office will observe Dr. Martin Luther King Day. This year marks the 25

th

anniversary of the day of service that celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy. The observance of this holiday encourages Americans to help improve their communities and uphold the ideals that all humans are equal, regardless of race, religion or background, and should be judged by the content of their character.  We urge our fellow citizens to participate in this day of service in honor of Dr. King.

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Gloucester Township Police Department Is Now Using Neighbors By Ring

To Connect With Residents and Solve Crime

Sign up for Neighbors by Ring and connect with GTPD!

GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, NJ (January 18, 2020)–GTPD is encouraging all residents to sign up with Neighbors by Ring. You do not need a Ring device to sign up and you will be able to communicate with neighbors in your area. You will have the ability to post and view video of crimes and suspicious activity.

We have listed frequently asked questions about the Neighbors App below:

How does the Neighbors App work?

The Neighbors App uses your address to create a radius around your home. If anyone shares an alert on the App about crime or safety within that radius, you’ll get a notification on your phone and tablet. Conversely, if you share an alert on the App about a crime or safety issue in your radius, your neighbors will also get a notification on their phones and tablets. You can then comment on these alerts to provide additional information about local issues, give tips to avoid affected areas, share photos or videos to help neighbors stay on the lookout, etc.

You can narrow your radius to only focus on hyper-local issues. Or if you live in a more rural location, you can expand your radius to include nearby communities and landmarks.

Do I need a Ring device to use the Neighbors App?

No. Anyone with a compatible iOS or Android device can download and use the Neighbors App for free to help reduce local crime.

How does the Neighbors App work with law enforcement?

Neighbors partners with local law enforcement so they can share official, important crime and safety updates and work together with their local community to build trust and make neighborhoods safer.

When using Neighbors, law enforcement see the same interface that all users see; the content is the same, the exact locations of posts are obfuscated, and the user’s personal identity is not displayed.

There are two key differences, though: 1) law enforcement can view public posts from within their jurisdiction (instead of just their ‘neighborhood’) and 2) law enforcement posts are identified so users can clearly see that they are the source of the content. This means that posts or comments made by law enforcement are clearly marked with their official title and name.

Law enforcement can only view the publicly available content in the Neighbors App, unless a user explicitly and voluntarily chooses to share their own recordings with law enforcement. Exact locations of devices and user information are never provided to law enforcement without a user’s express permission or a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us.

Law enforcement can request information from users within their jurisdiction.Law enforcement must reference a relevant case number in order to make a request within a specific, limited time range and area. Ring will then ask a targeted group of users in that area if they are willing to share any relevant footage with law enforcement. It’s then up to the user to share their video file(s) or decline the request. Users can also opt out of all future requests by law enforcement. Again, Ring will not release user information without a user’s express permission or a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us.

Camera systems help deter package theft. If a theft occurs and you have video footage, we encourage residents to report the incident immediately to the police department and use the neighbors app to let surrounding neighbors know what occurred.

To sign up for the free Neighbors app click on the attached link:

https://shop.ring.com/pages/neighbors

Address/Location

Gloucester Township Police Department

1261 Chews Landing Rd

Gloucester Township, NJ 08021

Contact

Emergency: 9-1-1

Non-emergencies: 856-228-4500

The Past President of Newell Rubbermaid Sentenced for Tax Fraud

Defendant admitted to traveling to Canada to withdraw funds from Swiss bank account at ATMs to avoid detection

PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney William M. McSwain announced that Jeffrey Cooley, 66, of Toledo, OH was sentenced to one month incarceration, 12 months’ supervised release, and a $210,000 fine by United States District Court Judge Joshua D. Wolson for filing a false tax

return which reported that Cooley had purchased an offshore trust company years after he actually did in order to evade paying appropriate taxes.

Cooley served as global president of Newell Rubbermaid from 1998 to 2004. Sometime in or around 2005, after his retirement, Cooley and others purchased an offshore trust company named Southpac Trust (BVI) Limited, an asset protection company that owned and operated a bank in the Cook Islands. According to the charges in this case, Cooley’s 2012 tax return falsely reported that he had purchased Southpac in 2012, when in fact he had co-owned it continuously through nominee entities since 2005.

On October 3, 2019, Cooley pleaded guilty. In addition to the charged conduct, Cooley admitted that, after purchasing Southpac in 2005, he established an offshore bank account in Switzerland in the name of a nominee entity which allowed him to covertly receive his income from Southpac and its subsidiaries. Cooley received more than $300,000 of income into this Swiss account. In addition, in order to access these funds covertly, Cooley traveled from his home in the United States across the border into Canada multiple times to withdraw funds in cash via debit cards. Cooley no longer owns or holds any interest in Southpac.

“This case is an example of sheer greed,” said U.S. Attorney McSwain. “Cooley was already wealthy through his earnings as the president of a globally recognized company, but that simply wasn’t enough for him. Instead, he felt the need to cheat in order to line his pockets through fraud. He invested in a company and then went to great lengths to hide that investment so he wouldn’t have to pay his fair share of taxes. That was an intolerable affront to every honest American taxpayer.”

“Every American who pays his or her taxes should be offended that a select few use anonymous offshore accounts to evade their tax liability,” said Guy Ficco SAC, IRS Criminal Investigation. “We owe it to every American taxpayer to use all lawful means to identify and prosecute individuals, like Mr. Cooley, who willfully and intentionally violate their known legal duty to pay their fair share of taxes.”

The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation and by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Patrick J. Murray and by First Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams.

EFF to Argue In NJ Supreme Court; Can you be made to Turn Over Password to Encrypted iPhone?

Trenton, New Jersey—On Tuesday, January 21, at 1 pm, EFF Senior Staff Attorney Andrew Crocker will ask the New Jersey Supreme Court to rule that the state can’t force a defendant to turn over the passcode for his encrypted iPhone under the Fifth Amendment, which protects American’s rights against self-incrimination.

The Fifth Amendment states that people cannot be forced to incriminate themselves, and it’s well settled that this privilege against self-incrimination covers compelled “testimonial” communications, including physical acts. However,

courts

have

split

over how to apply the

Fifth Amendment

to compelled decryption of encrypted devices.

EFF, ACLU, and ACLU of New Jersey filed a brief in the case

State v. Andrews

arguing that the state can’t compel a suspect to recall and use information that exists only in his memory to aid law enforcement’s prosecution of him.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Crocker will tell the court that reciting, writing, typing or otherwise reproducing a password from memory is testimony protected by the Fifth Amendment.

Read the amicus brief EFF filed in the

Andrews

case:

https://www.eff.org/document/effaclu-amicus-us-v-andrews

WHO: EFF Senior Staff Attorney Andrew Crocker

WHAT:

New Jersey v. Andrews

WHERE:

Supreme Court of New Jersey

25 Market St.

Trenton, NJ 08611

The argument will also be

live-streamed

.

WHEN:

Tuesday

January 21

1 pm

RELATED ISSUES

PRIVACY

RELATED CASES

U.S. V DOE (IN RE: GRAND JURY SUBPOENA DUCES TECUM DATED MARCH 25, 2011)

Dept. of Justice News: Casino Cheaters Caught

Dealer and Player Conspired to Cheat two Maryland Casinos out of More Than $1 Million

After just a few hours of playing baccarat at a Maryland casino in September 2017, Chenguang Ni headed home to New York with more than $850,000 in winnings.

The odds of winning any given hand of baccarat stand at just under 50 percent. But Ni and his tablemates won an astounding 18 of 21 hands—including one run of 14 straight wins.

The next day, the casino called the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office. Ni had cheated, they believed, and one of their dealers had likely helped him. But the dealer they suspected, Ming Zhang, denied any involvement when questioned by the casino.

“The casino knew there had been cheating,” said FBI Special Agent Jason Bender of his investigation of the case. “What wasn’t known was exactly how the player did it.”

Baccarat games are played with eight decks of cards. The dealer—called the banker—typically spreads the cards on the table to show the players that they are standard decks, shuffles them, and then places them into a holding container for play.

The banker then deals two cards to the player position and two cards to the bank position. A player bets on whose hand will come closest to nine—the player or the banker—or if they will tie. There is only a single player hand no matter how many players are at the table, and extra cards are dealt out only under certain prescribed circumstances.

A player who knew the order of the cards in the deck could predict the outcome of each game with absolute accuracy. The casino concluded that Ni must have known the order of the cards.

“The casino knew there had been cheating. What wasn’t known was exactly how the player did it.”

Jason Bender, special agent, FBI Baltimore

By reviewing the casino’s surveillance footage and conducting interviews, FBI agents confirmed that Ni had convinced the other gamblers at the table to follow his lead that night. These unwitting accomplices were given money by Ni and told to bet along with him and then hand over their winnings at the end of the game.

Soon after, the casino dealer confessed to his role in the scheme. Zhang, who worked at two Maryland casinos, admitted he met with Ni over the summer of 2017. The two men agreed that Zhang would alert Ni of his upcoming shifts as a dealer at the casinos. He further agreed to not shuffle a section of cards in the baccarat deck after they had been fanned in front of players.

Ni found a way to use his phone to take images of the cards as they were fanned out. “Then he and the other gamblers he recruited would sit there for a while, playing smaller bets just to move the cards along and keep their seats,” Bender explained. During this time, Ni excused himself from the table on several occasion to go to the bathroom to review the images of the deck.

Bender said that Ni didn’t have to memorize each card in the unshuffled section of the deck but only needed to recognize the sequence of cards that would signal the unshuffled cards had come up. “Then he just needed to remember the either/or sequence of the bets—as in player, banker, player, player,” Bender said.

Investigators learned the pair had also carried out a similar plan at another casino where Zhang previously worked, and the take from that casino was nearly $200,000.

By the time agents came to Ni, their evidence was strong. Ni pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport stolen funds and was sentenced to 13 months in prison. Because Ni is not a legal resident of the United States, his case will be referred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement after he has served his sentence.

The dealer, Zhang, was fired from the casino and sentenced to 18 months in federal prison in December 2019. He was also given three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution equal to the full amount of the illicit winnings.

In total, investigators found the pair cheated the casinos of $1,046,560.

Bender explained that although these casinos are big business, a portion of the casino’s profits go into the Maryland education trust fund. “Part of that revenue belongs to the state of Maryland, and part of the theft affects state education funding,” he said.

He also warned would-be cheaters: “You should assume you will be caught.” Bender said that the casinos usually detect cheating while the player is still at the table. “But even if you walk out, the evidence of the crime is going to be captured.”

In other words, the odds are overwhelmingly against you.

Resources

Former Casino Dealer Sentenced to Federal Prison for Participating in a Cheating Scheme

Pemberton Man Charged with Sexual Assault of Two Minors

Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina and Pemberton Township Police Chief David H. Jantas announced that a 54-year-old man was arrested today on charges of sexually assaulting two young girls at his residence in the Browns Mills section of Pemberton Township.

Carlos Aponte, of the first block of Homestead Drive, was charged with two counts of Sexual Assault (Second Degree) and two counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child (Second Degree).

Aponte was taken into custody this morning at the Prosecutor’s Office in Mount Holly and lodged in the Burlington County Jail pending a detention hearing in Superior Court.

The investigation revealed that Aponte was acquainted with the victims. In an effort to protect their identities, no further information about the assaults will be released.

Aponte will be prosecuted by Assistant Prosecutor Stephen Eife, supervisor of the BCPO Major Crimes Unit – Special Victims Section. The investigation was conducted by the Prosecutor’s Office and the Pemberton Township Police Department. The lead investigators are BCPO Lt. Daniel Leon and Pemberton Township Police Detective Joshua Danka.

All persons are considered innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

Alert Neighbor Contacts Police To Report Vehicle Burglars

GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, NJ–The Gloucester Township police report on January 15, 2020 at approximately 4:12 am, an alert neighbor noticed two suspicious males walking in the unit block of Marcia Ct. in the

Blackwood section of town.  They contacted police who quickly responded and set up a perimeter.  Shortly after, officers located two males walking on Morningstar Ct. and ordered them to stop.  The males fled and one juvenile male was apprehended after a foot pursuit through several yards.  The other male is believed to be an adult and remains at large.  Several vehicle burglaries were found and the juvenile male was charged with each, processed and released to a parent.  The investigation is continuing and detectives are using our new Camera Registry to help identify residences with surveillance video. Several videos are being viewed which may have already revealed possible video evidence to help detectives ID the second male. The investigation is continuing.

Residents are reminded to always lock their vehicles and refrain from leaving valuables in the open.  Most of the vehicle burglaries reported to Gloucester Township Police are of unlocked vehicles.

If anyone has additional information or knowledge of these burglaries, please contact the Gloucester Township Police Department at 856-228-4500 or call GTPD Anonymous Crime Tip Line: 856-842-5560.

To send an Anonymous Tip Via Text Message to Gloucester Township Police, text the keyword TIP GLOTWPPD and your tip message to 888777.

You may also click here to access our Anonymous Web Tip page:   https:local.nixle.com/tip/alert/5170177

TerrAscend Issued Permit to Grow Medical Marijuana

Eighth Alternative Treatment Center Statewide Permitted to Grow

Boonton Township NJ

–The New Jersey Department of Health today issued a permit to TerrAscend in Boonton Township to begin growing medical marijuana. The permit was issued after a comprehensive review including several site inspections, background checks of

its corporate officers and a review of its security operations and cultivation facility.

“The Department is committed to providing greater access to this therapy for patients,” said New Jersey Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli.  “TerrAscend is the fourth Alternative Treatment Center to receive a permit to grow product in the northern region of the state.”

After product has been tested by the state laboratory and the dispensary is operational and inspected by the Medical Marijuana Program (MMP), a second permit will be issued to operate and dispense as an Alternative Treatment Centers (ATC). TerrAscend will operate their dispensary in Phillipsburg.

Once TerrAscend receives its permit to dispense, the MMP will notify the patients and caregivers by email of the opening date.

TerrAscend is the second ATC to receive a cultivation permit among the awards made by the MMP in December 2018. In December 2019, the MMP

issued

cultivation and dispensing permits to GTI, which opened Rise dispensary in Paterson that same month.

TerrAscend officials hope the dispensary is permitted and able to begin dispensing medical marijuana to registered patients and caregivers in the spring.

“We are honored to receive our cultivation permit after meeting the rigorous requirements and operating procedures by NJ DOH,” said Jason Ackerman, Executive Chairman of TerrAscend. “TerrAscend is committed to compliance, quality and safety and we look forward to bringing high-quality, trusted brands from TerrAscend’s portfolio to medical-use patients in New Jersey.”

There are seven Alternative Treatment Centers currently dispensing medical marijuana: Greenleaf Compassion Center of Montclair, Compassionate Care Foundation of Egg Harbor, Garden State Dispensary of Woodbridge and Union Township, Breakwater Alternative Treatment Center of Cranbury, Curaleaf NJ, Inc. in Bellmawr, Harmony Dispensary in Secaucus and Rise in Paterson.

Participation in the program continues to grow.  There are more than 66,200 patients, 2,500 caregivers and 1,092 physicians participating in the program.

Patients and caregivers can visit the

MMP\’s website

if they choose to change their preferred ATC. The change can also be made by calling the Customer Service Unit of the MMP at 609-292-0424 and does not require changing ID cards.

Patients can refer to the

FAQ section

of the MMP website for additional information. The 474 active physicians enrolled in the program are listed by county and medical specialty.

New Jersey residents interested in registering for the MMP can click

here

.

For more information about TerrAscend, visit

https://nj.terrascend.com/

Follow the New Jersey Department of Health on

Twitter

@njdeptofhealth,

Facebook

/njdeptofhealth,

Instagram

@njdeptofhealth and

Snapchat

@njdoh.

For more information, visit our homepage at

nj.gov/health

.