File Photo
The plot twist here—the heist flopped and the accused are facing prison time if convicted,” DA Katz said.
By Forum Staff
Three Queens men have been indicted by a borough grand jury following a complex surveillance investigation that uncovered a Long Island warehouse break-in scheme that was planned in Queens over a two-week period in early July, District Attorney Melinda Katz recently announced.
Christopher Tsang, 44, of College Point, Joe Lin, 40, of Flushing, and Chung Wei Wang, 38, of Oakland Gardens were arraigned on a 10-count indictment charging them with burglary in the second degree, four-counts of robbery in the first degree, four-counts of robbery in the second degree and conspiracy in the fourth degree. The defendants have been ordered to return to court on Jan. 10.
According to the charges, throughout early July, the defendants—sometimes just a few of them, and other times a group of as many as 15—met at various Queens locations to flesh out their plot. On July 8, Tsang and Lin drove to the West Babylon warehouse on Route 109, met with others and watched their target from a nearby supermarket on the same street. They also called a nearby auto body shop to check their hours of operation on their planned robbery date. On July 9, the group met again in a movie theater parking lot in College Point and reviewed photographs of the warehouse.
Tsang, Wang and another man met on July 11 in Long Island City on 30th Street. The men—in dark clothing, masks and gloves—covered all identifiable markings on several vehicles.
On July 18, according to the charges, around 7 a.m. several of the defendants allegedly barged into the West Babylon warehouse wearing masks and NYPD-branded tactical clothing. The men also are accused of brandishing what appeared to be firearms. They encountered two workers as they were unloading boxes in the warehouse. The two employees were restrained with zip ties and had hoods placed over their heads. Two delivery workers at the scene were also restrained with zip ties. As alleged, the defendants then removed approximately 100 boxes from the warehouse, placed them into the unmarked trucks and vans and left the scene.
Police executed court-authorized search warrants for the homes of Tsang, Wang and Lin. During the search of Tsang’s 124th Street home investigators allegedly recovered an imitation pistol, an inoperable firearm and approximately $8,500 in cash.
The DA said during the search of Lin’s home on 163rd Street in Flushing, cops allegedly seized up to 100 pounds of marijuana and roughly $50,000 in cash. When police searched Wang’s 232nd Street home in Oakland Gardens, an unloaded .22-caliber firearm, eight Tasers (which resembled imitation pistols), zip ties, various police-like paraphernalia, including hats, shirts, badges and vests, along with approximately $120,000 in cash was recovered.
“These defendants are accused of orchestrating an elaborate ‘Ocean’s Eleven’-style plot to rip off a warehouse and rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars. The alleged ring-leaders arrested [last week] met at illegal gambling parlors, a movie theater parking lot and other locations in Queens to plan the logistics of their heist. As alleged, they used phony NYPD tactical gear, waved weapons and restrained warehouse workers before taking more than a hundred boxes of merchandise from a Suffolk County warehouse,” Katz said. “The plot twist here—the heist flopped and the accused are facing prison time if convicted.”
