The Conrail Boyz – Out of Business!

ELIZABETH, N.J., September 3, 2004 -- The man who admitted leading one of the nation's most accomplished bands of rail bandits was sentenced Friday to 13 years in prison. The term given to Edward Mongon was the longest of the 22 people sentenced, all of whom pleaded guilty. Most got terms of five to eight years in prison, with several receiving probation. Only two defendants remain, a fugitive and Mongon's 82-year-old grandmother. Charges against her are to be dropped, but state prosecutors have filed papers to seize a house and some cars they say were acquired with ill-gotten gains and placed in her  name.

Mongon, 29, of Union City, and most of the others were arrested  in July following a two-year investigation initiated by police for Norfolk Southern, a freight railroad. He pleaded guilty to racketeering in  April, admitting he led the group that called itself the Conrail Boyz. The gang took its name from the railroad whose Northeastern freight routes were divided between Norfolk Southern and CSX in 1999.

The gang focused on consumer goods, such as designer clothes and electronic equipment. In one brazen robbery, members drove a container with 17,496 Sony Play Station units, worth $5 million, out of the rail yard in January 2001, the railroad said. More typically, members of the gang would hop on trains moving at 5 mph to 10 mph, using bolt cutters to enter freight cars and find which ones carried valuable goods. If the jumpers found a valuable shipment, they tossed it to the ground, where it was collected by accomplices.

Sometimes, jumpers would radio cohorts with the train  number, who would then pose as rail workers and call dispatchers to determine where the train would be stopping, and then unload the cargo at a siding, authorities said. Gang members used radio  scanners and night-vision binoculars to avoid security patrols. They sold stolen cargo. Mongon used  relatives to launder the cash, which helped purchase a house and a fleet of luxury vehicles, authorities said.

Conrail police had made dozens of arrests of gang  members since 1992, but most were low-ranking members who were back on the prowl relatively quickly because they were charged with minor  crimes, authorities said. To dismantle the gang, the railroad joined with state investigators to track stolen goods to the leadership.

Posted: 09/04/04