New Jersey Man Sentenced to 41 Months in Prison for Stealing Nearly $1 Million in Interstate Cargo

U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey
October 24, 2011

NEWARK, NJ—A North Bergen, N.J., man was sentenced today to 41 months in prison for organizing a cargo theft ring that stole full tractor-trailers of merchandise from trucking yards in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

A jury previously convicted Hamad Siyam, 43, following a three-day trial before U.S. District Judge Dennis M. Cavanaugh. Siyam was convicted of both counts of the indictment in which he was charged: conspiring to possess goods traveling in interstate commerce and possession of goods traveling in interstate commerce. Judge Cavanaugh also imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and the evidence at trial:

Hamad Siyam was the organizer of a ring that stole tractor-trailers full of merchandise in order to resell it. Needing a place to store the stolen goods while he located buyers, Siyam sought warehouse space through an acquaintance, who he did not know was cooperating with the FBI and the New Jersey State Police’s Cargo Theft Unit.

The FBI and State Police established an undercover warehouse in Sayreville, N.J., and installed a government cooperating witness (“CW”) as warehouse manager. Thereafter, four tractor-trailers were driven to the undercover warehouse, including trailers filled with bed linens; merchandise destined for Home Goods stores; food; and clothing destined for Burlington Coat Factory stores around the country. In total, the stolen merchandise had a value of nearly $1 million.

Due in large measure to the work of the CW, Siyam was caught on video inventorying the stolen goods and on audio discussing them.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Cavanaugh sentenced Siyam to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $633,017.35 in restitution.

Siyam was arrested Jan. 13, 2011, on a complaint charging him with one count of conspiracy to receive and sell stolen goods and one count of money laundering conspiracy in connection with the alleged sale of baby formula, stolen from retail stores in several southern states, out of a grocery store in Union City, N.J. Those charges remain pending. The charges contained in that complaint are merely allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Michael B. Ward, and the New Jersey State Police, under the direction of Colonel Rick Fuentes, Superintendent, for the investigation leading to today’s sentence.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob T. Elberg of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark.

Defense counsel: Paul Condon Esq., Jersey City, N.J.