CAMDEN, N.J. — A former Penns Grove man admitted his role in a scheme involving checks stolen from the mail and other sources following a joint investigation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Newark and the U.S. Postal Inspector’s Service’s (USPIS) Philadelphia Division.
Dezhon McCrae, 25, formerly of Penns Grove, pleaded guilty before the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in Camden to a six-count information charging him with two counts of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, possession of a stolen postal key, possession of stolen mail, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery.
“McCrae owned up to serious financial crimes using multiple fraudulent schemes against government, banks and individuals for his illicit gain,” said HSI Newark acting Special Agent in Charge Spiros Karabinas. “HSI Newark and the USPIS continues to investigate this case with our law enforcement partners in New Jersey and Georgia. Thanks to our collaboration, we are able to uncover McCrae’s corruption and hold him accountable for his actions.”
New Jersey-based law enforcement partners, including the New Jersey State Police, the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office, the Glassboro Police Department and the Cherry Hill Police Department, assisted in the investigation with the Paulk County Sheriff’s Department in Georgia.
According to the investigation, from May 2018 through February 2020, McCrae was part of a “card cracking” conspiracy in which the conspirators obtained stolen checks from the mail and other sources. They then used the stolen checks to create counterfeit checks with the same routing and account numbers for deposit into area banks. In this scheme, conspirators were able to defraud the victim banks of over $274,000. McCrae’s role in this scheme resulted in over $10,000 loss to the victim banks.
In a second scheme to commit bank fraud, from May 11, 2022, to July 27, 2022, McCrae participated in a nearly identical scheme to defraud another bank in over $14,000 of loss.
On Aug. 18, 2023, while McCrae was residing in Paulk County, Georgia, local police were dispatched to McCrae’s residence in response to eyewitness reports of a shooting. Their investigation led to the discovery of a stolen postal mailbox key and stolen mail in McCrae’s residence. With a warrant to search McCrae’s cellphone, police found evidence that McCrae had manufactured a fraudulent New Jersey driver’s license.
The search of McCrae’s cellphone also uncovered evidence of his role in a conspiracy to commit two robberies of letter carriers in Cumberland County, New Jersey. The target of the robberies was the letter carriers’ postal mailbox keys.
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