Three guilty on federal armed robbery, kidnapping charges

WHITE PLAINS – Three men were found guilty in US District Court in White Plains Tuesday of armed robbery, kidnapping and firearms charges stemming from a series of truck robberies in and around the tri-state area in the fall 2006. One of those began in Rockland County.

Between September 2006 and January 2007, Rafael Rodriguez, Angel Diaz and Jorge Cedeno targeted and hijacked trucks containing valuable cargo, including perfumes, cosmetic products and cellular phones. During the robberies, the men brandished firearms, pistol-whipped truck drivers, tied up the drivers with plastic flex-ties, and retrained them in sleeper cabins of their trucks while the robberies took place and the trucks were offloaded.

In one instance, on September 13, 2006, the men hijacked a truck containing more than $500,000 work of perfume products. Armed with guns, Rodriguez and Diaz stormed the truck while it was parked outside a warehouse in Blauvelt. They pistol-whipped the two drivers and forced them into the back of the cab where they were held and restrained with plastic flex-ties.

Another man drove the truck to a warehouse in New Jersey where the truck was unloaded and abandoned in Clifton.

Six other defendants pled guilty to similar charges.