Cuomo: From Slamming Merrill to Busting Vehicle Theft Rings

Photograph of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, yesterday by Louis Lanzano/AP

Attorney Andrew Cuomo joined Police Commissioner Ray Kelly yesterday to announce that a $2.5 million vehicle theft ring was busted. According to the AG's Office, a "Bronx-based criminal enterprise... stole and exported millions of dollars worth of construction equipment and luxury vehicles." Authorities arrested 12 people who targeted Hummers, Porsches, Caterpillar Excavators and more at construction sites, car dealerships, garages, and even on the streets.

Cuomo, who was making white collar waves by detailing Merrill Lynch's bonuses, said, "This cast of characters is alleged to have operated a highly sophisticated, international criminal enterprise that preyed on New York construction businesses and the general public for millions of dollars." His office cited one example of their "audacity": "On July 22, 2008, some of the defendants brazenly drove a Caterpillar Excavator right off a construction site in Yonkers and down the New York State Thruway. Although they plowed into an overpass, causing a multi-car crash, they just kept going." Naturally, the thieves needed replacement parts for the Excavator, so when they went to order them, the authorities moved in!

And during an earlier speech, Cuomo gave his thoughts on improving government performance. Politicker NY reports, "There was stirring rhetoric—of a sort easily recognizable to anyone who was around for his run for governor in 2002—about returning competence to Albany, and of making the Empire State great again."