HUDSON COUNTY — A reputed leader of a group of young people who were indicted in 2003 for stealing items from local freight trains ran into legal trouble again this past weekend when he was pulled over in Hudson County for driving without a seatbelt — and seemed to confess to something more, police said.
According to North Bergen Police Lt. Frank Cannella, Edward Mongon, 35, of Hoboken was observed driving without his seatbelt by a patrol officer in North Bergen on May 30 at 8:49 p.m.
After the officer pulled Mongon over, he noticed the odor of alcohol from his breath and asked him to perform field sobriety tests, which Mongon was allegedly unable to complete, according to Cannella.
Cannella said, “He [allegedly] kept saying he only had five Coronas.”
He was charged with driving while intoxicated and refusing a Breathalyzer.
Police confirmed that Mongon was the same man who has been alternately feared and praised as a smart criminal for his alleged role in a gang of more than two dozen people who learned the train schedules at Jersey City’s Croxton Yards in the 1990s and allegedly began plundering Nike sneakers and electronics from the trains. The Boyz have even been chronicled in a TV documentary.
Prosecutors said the “Boyz” would jump onto the trains moving in and out of Croxton, use bolt cutters to open containers, toss them to other gang members, and take them away on trucks.
Mongon, who grew up in public housing in Hoboken, was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2003. However, the North Bergen police said he was released on Jan. 22, 2008.
For our prior reporting on the Boyz, see links below.
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