Six Charged in Kidnapping, Robbery of Teaneck Teenager

Teaneck police arrested six people Wednesday after they kidnapped and robbed a township teenager who tried to sell a cell phone stolen from one of the attackers over the weekend, Police Chief Robert Wilson said.

Four attendees at a basketball tournament in Parsippany last weekend reported their phones were taken, according to police. Days later, one of the teen victims noticed the phones were up for sale on Craigslist.

“The juvenile notified others to the advertisement and arrangements were made with five adults to meet with the seller of the phones in the parking lot of the Marriott Hotel in Teaneck,” police said in a statement.

Posing as an interested buyer, one of the assailants, 19-year-old Mohamed Aly of Jersey City, pulled up to the 16-year-old seller Wednesday around 6:30 p.m. and convinced the teen to ride in his car to another section of the hotel lot where Aly’s five friends were waiting, police said.

One of Aly’s friends, 27-year-old Jersey City resident Khalil Adem, was wearing a badge around his neck, leading the teen to believe he was a police officer, according to authorities.

The teen was pulled from the car and the four stolen phones were taken, along with the youth’s own cell phone, police said. The plan went awry when a Glenpointe security officer on his way home spotted the activity.

As the security officer approached, the crew forced the teenager into their car and fled, police said. The guard dialed Teaneck police, who rushed to the area and stopped the group in the parking lot of a nearby Enrite Gas Station on Teaneck Road.

The adults in the group were all charged with first-degree kidnapping, second-degree robbery and second-degree luring of a child. Bail was set at $1.5 million. In addition to Aly and Adem, police identified the other adults as Zakarya Abderrahim, 19 of Jersey City, Waleed A. Gabr, 28, of Jersey City, and Mohammad Najib, 24 of Clifton.

Adem faces an additional charge of impersonating a law enforcement officer. The alleged juvenile assailant, whose name was not released, faces juvenile delinquency offenses that if committed by an adult would be robbery, luring and kidnapping.

Police said they also took the 16-year-old from Teaneck who tried to sell the phones into custody, but he was not charged. 

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