Eight men, reportedly illegal immigrants from Uzbekistan, are facing New York state charges after being accused by prosecutors of impersonating shipping companies to steal goods worth millions of dollars.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday that between October 2025 and April 2026, suspects Aleksey Vorobyev, Dilshod Nabiev, Doston Mardoev, Murodullo Khasanov, Nizom Ismoilov, Nodir Kobilov, Rakhmiddin Abdullaev and Shavkatbek Mamadjanov committed six thefts of various goods.
Manhattan prosecutors did not specify the national origin of the suspects, but a law enforcement source told The New York Post that the eight men are Uzbekistan nationals who do not speak English and who illegally entered the U.S. during the Biden administration.
The group, led by Mr. Khasanov, is alleged to have purchased winning bids for various shipments from hackers, who were able to access and steal the bids by targeting shipping brokers.
Once they got the bid, the suspects leased trucks, put the registration numbers and names of real shipping carriers on the trucks, picked up the goods and distributed them in New York City instead of taking the shipments to the intended destinations, the district attorney’s office said.
State prosecutors said that the thefts included:
• a shipment of cigarettes, intended to be sent from Virginia to Tennessee and Florida.
• a shipment of more than 43,000 pounds of copper, picked up in New Jersey.
• a shipment of frozen lamb intended to head from New Jersey to Minnesota and Wyoming.
• a shipment of more than 25,000 pounds of cheese meant to go from New Jersey to Georgia.
• a shipment of more than 39,000 pounds of beef intended to be sent from Pennsylvania to Colorado.
In total, the group is accused of stealing $3.3 million worth of cigarettes, $432,000 worth of cheese, $295,000 worth of beef, over $266,000 worth of copper and $165,000 worth of lamb, the district attorney’s office said.
They are each charged with conspiracy in the fourth degree and multiple counts of grand larceny in the second degree.
The district attorney’s office said the indictment also includes other charges of first-and second-degree grand larceny and first-and second-degree possession of stolen property, though it did not specify which defendants faced which extra charges.
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