The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office says the armed robbery went down on April 23, 2024, at Diamond Fantasy on West Pleasant Avenue in Maywood. Detectives report that two masked men walked into the store, pulled out guns and threatened an employee and a customer. Investigators say the robbers fled but left behind duct tape and zip ties, and it did not take long for detectives to conclude that more people were involved.
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
An Indian national has admitted in a United States court that he took part in a 2023 scheme to hire a hitman to assassinate a prominent Sikh separatist leader living in New York, federal prosecutors said. Nikhil Gupta, 54, pleaded guilty on Friday over his alleged role in attempting to make contact with a hitman to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist who holds dual US and Canadian citizenship.
The agency, known as the FSB, also released more surveillance video footage, including a nearly minute-long clip in which the alleged shooter -- identified as 65-year-old Lyubomir Korba -- was shown confessing to the crime. In the video, which could be not be independently verified, the man said he was recruited by Ukraine's SBU security agency in August 2025 in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil, and underwent training in Kyiv. He said he was promised $30,000 in cryptocurrency if he killed Alekseyev.
We have never forgotten those heroes, Bondi said of those killed, and we have never stopped seeking justice for that crime against our nation. We will prosecute this alleged terrorist to the fullest extent of the law, she said. Al-Bakoush's alleged involvement in the attack, which came amid widespread antigovernment protests and insecurity in Libya following the overthrow and killing of longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, was not immediately clear.
On Wednesday (February 4, 2026), Maja T.*, an anti-fascist activist from the eastern German city of Jena (Thuringia), was found guilty by a court in Hungary of having attacked and seriously injured several suspected right-wing extremists in Budapest in February 2023. The attacks had apparently been directed at individuals thought to have participated in the annual "Day of Honor" rally of neo-Nazis from all over Europe, held in the Hungarian capital.
As his flight departed from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport en route to Kuwait via Istanbul, Canadian crypto fugitive Andean Medjedovic was unaware that his globe-trotting lifestyle would soon be halted. Just two weeks later, on Dec. 11, 2023, Dutch authorities issued a European arrest warrant for the then 21-year-old, alleging he had pulled off a "sophisticated hack" that netted him $48 million US in cryptocurrency.
Federal prosecutors charged a man with wire fraud, alleging a "Catch Me if You Can"-reminiscent scheme. US Attorney Ken Sorenson said in a Tuesday press release that a Canadian man was charged over allegations that he pretended to be a pilot and a flight attendant to get hundreds of free trips. According to court documents, 33-year-old Dallas Pokornik from Toronto was arrested in Panama earlier this month and extradited to the US.
Mexico has sent another 37 alleged members of Mexican criminal organisations to the United States, the country's security minister said, amid US President Donald Trump's threat of ground attacks against drug cartels in the region. The handover of alleged drug cartel members on Tuesday is the third major transfer to the US in the past year and brings the total number of suspects transferred to 92.
A Toronto court is hearing from one of the people who signed on to supervise a man accused of laundering funds for an international drug ring if he is released on bail. The woman, whose identity is covered by a publication ban, is taking the stand as Rolan Sokolovski's bail hearing enters its second day. Sokolovski is one of several Canadians arrested for extradition to the United States last fall as part of an investigation into Ryan Wedding,
There's a very clear limit on enforcement jurisdiction internationally, and that is that one state cannot enforce its law on the territory of another state unless that state gives its consent, said Margaret Satterthwaite, United Nations special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers. So if a state, for example, harboured someone that the US considered a fugitive, the US could approach that state and seek its consent to arrest them and bring them back to the US to stand trial.
Chinese authorities on Thursday confirmed that Cambodia had extradited a tycoon accused of running a massive online scam operation. Chinese-born Chen Zhi is chairman of Prince Holding Group, one of Cambodia's largest conglomerates that the US says has served as a front for "one of Asia's largest transnational criminal organizations." The US had indicted and sanctioned him in October on fraud and money-laundering charges over running a multibillion-dollar cyberscam network from Cambodia.
Chinese-born tycoon Chen Zhi, who was indicted by the US on fraud and money-laundering charges for running a multibillion-dollar online scam network from Cambodia, has been arrested there and extradited to China, Phnom Penh said. Chen allegedly directed operations of forced labour compounds across Cambodia, where trafficked workers were held in prison-like facilities surrounded by high walls and barbed wire, according to US prosecutors.
A prominent California farmer was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of murder in the shooting death of his estranged wife in a remote mountain community in Arizona, the Navajo County Sheriff's Office said. Michael Abatti, 63, was arrested in El Centro and booked into jail on a first-degree murder charge. He is awaiting extradition to Arizona. Authorities say they believe he drove to Arizona on Nov. 20 and fatally shot Kerri Ann Abatti, 59, before returning home to California.
A financier has been extradited from the United Kingdom to the United States to face allegations that he cheated investors who were promised monthly 10% gains in what was actually a Ponzi scheme, authorities said. Matthew Melton, 61, of Boulder, Colorado, has remained jailed at a federal lockup in Brooklyn after appearing in court Saturday to face securities fraud and wire fraud charges.
Acklom convinced Carolyn Woods in 2012 that he was both a Swiss investment banker and an MI6 agent, and had celebrity friends with whom he regularly spoke. In reality, the man was not an international banker, nor was he in espionage, and his fabled friendships with British celebrities such as Chris Evans were allegedly also fabricated. He also did not have a string of properties in need of renovation. He left Woods penniless.
A Marblehead man was arrested Friday in California after allegedly defrauding more than 100 high school students and chaperones in Florida out of $400,000, authorities said. Robert Goodwin, 56, owner of Stone & Compass travel agency, is facing two counts of grand theft and two counts of organized scheme to defraud, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said in a Sept. 30 press release. His bond is set at $4 million.
When Sheridan begged Morrison not to kidnap her, he pulled a small gun from a paper bag and attempted to load it. During a struggle, Sheridan was able to take the gun from Morrison, but he grabbed her by the hair and pulled the car over at a rest area on Route 7. Sheridan was then able to unlock the door and escape the vehicle, prompting another vehicle to follow Morrison's car and report the license plate number to Williamstown police, officials say.
