(The Associated Press distributed the following article on July 29.)
ELIZABETH, N.J. — The accused ringleader of what railroad officials believe was the most prolific train robbery gang in U.S. history surrendered Tuesday before a state judge.
Edward Mongon, 28, was ordered held on $1 million bail. Mongon’s girlfriend, Liz Isla, accused of conspiring with the gang, also surrendered and was held on $75,000 bail.
All but one of the 24 suspects have been arrested since July 10 or surrendered, said John R. Hagerty, a spokesman for the state Division of Criminal Justice. Jose E. Maldonado, 35, remains at large.
A message left for Mongon’s lawyer was not immediately returned Tuesday.
Deputy Attorney General Mark Eliades sought a high bail, noting Mongon’s prior convictions for receiving stolen property and theft. Also, investigators have learned Mongon offered to pay to have a Conrail officer injured, disabled or killed, Hagerty said.
Hagerty said the gang, known as the “Conrail Boyz,” used two-way radios and stolen trucks to steal millions of dollars worth of rail cargo over the last decade.
Some members jumped on slow-moving container cars to find valuable cargo, then radioed the information to cohorts, who imitated rail workers to ask dispatchers which siding the train was headed for, authorities said. Once stopped, they tossed the merchandise into nearby trucks.
The gang allegedly focused on consumer goods, such as designer clothes. In one brazen robbery, members drove a container with 17,496 Sony PlayStation units, worth $5 million, out of the rail yard in 2001, according to Norfolk Southern police, who initiated the investigation.
An indictment was handed up earlier this month.