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SCRANTON — Five men from New York City have been indicted by a federal grand jury for their alleged participation in a mail fraud scheme that targeted senior citizens and fraudulently inducted them to send money through the mail under false pretenses.

U.S. Attorney John C. Gurganus in a news release identified the defendants as Josiah DeJesus, 20, Jashua Noboa-Nival, 20, Yeurys Peguero-Rosario, 22, Nelson Rivas-Bello, 27, and Ramon Peguero-Rosario, 19, all from Bronx, N.Y.

The indictment alleges that on several dates in July through October 2020, the defendants traveled from New York to various locations in Pennsylvania, including Luzerne and Lackawanna counties, and picked up UPS and Fed Ex packages containing large sums of cash sent by elderly victims under the false pretense that their grandchildren had been arrested and were in immediate need of money.

The indictment further alleges the victims sent money after receiving fraudulent phone calls made by the defendants’ co-conspirators, who posed either as the victims’ grandchildren or as a public defender representing the victims’ grandchildren.