Two men involved in a pair of briefly successful heists that grossed $ 6 million in luxury designer goods from a New York airport have been sentenced to jail following guilty pleas in court Supreme of Queens.

David Lacarriere of Manhattan, one of the two alleged coordinators of the two JFK airport heists in early 2020, pleaded guilty in September to criminal possession of stolen property, District Attorney Melinda Katz said Monday. First degree crime is a class B crime.

Lacarriere has been charged with holding more than $ 2.5 million in designer Gucci and Chanel items stolen during his arrest last October, the state attorney said. Queens Supreme Court Judge Gene Lopez sentenced Lacarriere to 5.5 to 11 years in prison on Monday.

The 34-year-old was one of two truck drivers who previously worked at Kennedy Airport and was accused of using his “inside knowledge” to coordinate two heists. Handbags, sunglasses, sneakers and Gucci clothing, as well as Prada bags, ready-to-wear and accessories were among the loot recovered at the airport last year.

According to his indictment, Lacarriere went to the receiving office of an air cargo importer on January 31, 2020 and showed a forged document with an air waybill and flight details for a Prada shipment. He and Gary McArthur, the other man with “insider knowledge” who allegedly enlisted the help of two other people, then loaded four pallets of Prada merchandise onto a tractor-trailer and drove off, prosecutors said. This robbery earned them approximately $ 804,000 in Prada bags, clothing and accessories.

The truck involved in the theft was found days later, but it was empty – and the interior had been sprayed with bleach.

The crew reportedly repeated the same routine in another JFK heist on May 17. One allegedly posed as a truck driver while another presented another forged document – and the group fled with five pallets of air freight containing thousands of Chanel and Gucci items worth more. over $ 4.4 million.

This semi was also picked up a few days later, again with an interior soaked in bleach. Shipping labels and display cases were also still inside.

In June, prosecutors said police found the crew members at a non-operational beauty salon in Jamaica that they said had been used as a hiding place for stolen goods. When cops obtained a search warrant, they halted a sale of more than $ 300,000 of stolen designer goods, according to the indictment. During a separate search, they recovered over 3,000 Gucci items and over 1,000 Chanel products estimated to be worth $ 2.5 million or more.

“Millions of dollars in designer goods have been illegally transported
ownership of the airport by a gang of bandits who used fake freight forwarding receipts to gain access to an importer / exporter warehouse. Keeping our Queens airports secure is a top priority for my office. Two of the defendants have now been sentenced by the court for their role in this brazen heist, ”Katz said on Monday.

His announcement also included the mention of an August conviction for Oscar Asencio, who pleaded guilty this month to third degree criminal possession. Judge Lopez sentenced the 33-year-old Elmhurst man to 3.5 to 6 years in prison.

Ascencio had been accused of helping protect stolen property from Jamaica’s hideout. Prosecutors said he was one of two alleged co-conspirators who went on the run last year as authorities announced indictments in October 2020. He was finally arrested in March 2021.