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Nelson Otero, Maxcime Cagan (COURTESY: BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE)
A 19-count federal indictment says Nelson Otero, 47, who served prison time for weapons possession in the late 90s, and Maxcime Cagan, 46, pointed handguns at terrified clerks and pump jockeys at nine convenience stores and gas stations before making off with cash.
The spree began in March last year, when the pair held up the All Star Liquor Store on Broadway in Elmwood Park, according to the indictment.
Two days later, it says, they hit the Wine Cellar in Elizabeth, then two weeks later robbed an Exxon station on Route 1 in Rahway.
Another 10 days passed before both men jacked a 7-Eleven in Edison, federal authorities said.
Later that month, they hit a Hess station on Route 3 West in Secaucus, followed two weeks later by a 7-Elevenn holdup on Broadway in Fair Lawn, the indictment says.
Then came the night of May 10.
Authorities said both men burst into the Tiger Mart at an Exxon Station on Route 23 in Wayne, ordered employees and four customers to the back of the store before grabbing cash and cigarettes.
Worell pulled up and confronted the pair as they emerged from the store. They shot at him twice, with one round grazing his left ear, and took off. Despite being injured Worell chased them up Packanack Lake Road before they vanished in the dark.
Otero and Cagan struck twice more — but far from Bergen and Passaic, hitting a Krauszer’s in Hightstown on May 14 and a 7-Eleven in Mount Laurel two nights later, the federal indictment says.
Three weeks had passed when a SWAT team boxed in Otero’s car in Palisades Park, apparently as the pair was headed to another holdup. Investigators also nabbed a West New York man who authorities said helped plan the robberies — and, presumably, is cooperating with prosecutors in making the government’s case against the two alleged gunmen.
Cagen was carrying a loaded .9mm semi-automatic handgun, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said at the time, and assorted ammunition, a ballistic vest, and clothing that matched those in the robberies were found in Otero’s car.
In Otero’s home, investigators found a loaded .45-caliber semi automatic handgun, more holdup clothing, drug paraphernalia and cartons of cigarettes believed taken during the robberies, he said.
Both are charged at the state level with attempted murder and aggravated assault in the shooting of the Wayne Police Officer Brian Worell, who was grazed by a bullet when he interrupted a holdup on May 10.
Various agencies melded into a “multi-jurisdictional task force” to crack the case, Molinelli said. The included his office, the Passaic and Hudson county prosecutor’s offices, the Wayne Police Department, the Bergen and Passaic county SWAT teams, the Bergen and Passaic County sheriff’s departments, and the Elmwood Park, Fair Lawn, Hackensack and Paramus police departments.
The unit then handed over evidence that helped prosecutors in Newark take the case federal — meaning significant prison time if Otero and Cagan plead out or are convicted at trial.
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