Police Charge 4 in More Than 300 Boat GPS Thefts

UPPER TOWNSHIP – New Jersey State Police announced charges against four suspects, who they allege stole more than 300 high-end global positioning systems (GPS) from boats up and down the East Coast, including in Cape May County.
According to a Dec. 10 State Police release, a two-year investigation resulted in charges of theft, burglary and conspiracy to commit theft/burglary against Mizael Alfonso, Marie Frometa Rodriguez, Manuel Barbosa Mendiluza and Ciro Perez Martinez, all of whom were subsequently arrested and extradited back to New Jersey.
Police said detectives connected the suspects to more than $300,000 worth of stolen equipment in South Jersey. 
According to the release, state troopers from the Woodbine station began investigating a reported theft from a county boat yard in November 2019. Police said they contacted the boat owner’s insurance company and learned that the insurer had received similar claims, filed elsewhere in New Jersey, North Carolina and Massachusetts.
Police said they determined the suspects would enter South Jersey boat yards and storage facilities after hours and remove GPS systems from the vessels’ consoles before traveling to Miami and selling the units. 
Through “various investigative means” police said they were able to identify the individual suspects.  
After issuing arrest warrants in January, police located and arrested Alfonso, 47, and Rodriguez, 41, at a motel in Plymouth, Massachusetts in March. Mendiluza, 58, and Martinez, 29, were arrested separately in South Florida in October, according to police.
Multiple agencies assisted in the investigation and the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice will take over prosecution of the case, the release stated.
The above is based on information received from a law enforcement agency. The persons named are presumed innocent, unless proven otherwise.