Rockland County District Attorney Thomas P. Zugibe, together with United States Postal Inspector in Charge Philip R. Bartlett and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Special Agent in Charge James T. Hayes, Jr., today announced the arrests of 22 defendants for participating in a conspiracy to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars by forging U.S. Postal Service money orders.

“These arrests are a good example of what happens when federal, state and local law enforcement agencies work together to target criminal activities in Rockland County,” said District Attorney Zugibe. “Members of our highly skilled Special Investigations Unit will continue to aggressively investigate fraudulent financial schemes that threaten the integrity of our banking system and are often a gateway to further criminality.”

Postal Inspector in Charge Philip R. Bartlett said, “Postal Inspectors and our Law enforcement partners will vigorously investigate, arrest and prosecute anyone who attacks the financial integrity of the US Postal Service Money Order System.”

“Today’s arrests deal a critical blow to the operational capacity of the M-Block Crew gang, a set of the Bloods Gang. HSI financial crimes investigators identified and put an end to this complicated fraud and theft scheme that cost New York banks nearly a half million dollars,” said James T. Hayes, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of HSI in New York. “HSI will continue to use every tool at our disposal to combat financial crime that supports violent activity and to rid our neighborhoods of these dangerous gangs.”

According to the charges, those arrested devised schemes to defraud more than a dozen banks by purchasing U.S. Postal Money Orders in small denominations, usually $1 to $3, and altering them to appear as larger denominations, typically from $850 to $1000 per money order