Six men accused of storming a business on Old River Road in Edgewater and subjecting workers to a night of violence — including beatings, robbery at gunpoint and knifepoint, and sexual assault — are now behind bars in Bergen County, where authorities say at least one of the suspects has ties to a splinter faction of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Investigators say the attack unfolded around 3:30 a.m. on June 24, when the men allegedly forced multiple victims into the business kitchen, bound their arms and legs with tape and electronic charging cables, and brandished at least two firearms along with knives taken from the kitchen itself.
According to NJ.com, one victim was struck repeatedly in the head with a handgun, while multiple suspects physically assaulted another victim over and over during the ordeal. Two victims were sexually assaulted at gunpoint and knifepoint, the outlet reports, and the group ultimately made off with cash, several cellphones, identification documents and credit cards before fleeing the scene. The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office has said the incident involved at least one member of Anti-Tren, which authorities describe as a splinter faction of Tren de Aragua.
A Weeks-Long Manhunt Across State Lines
The case took investigators far beyond Bergen County. The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office Special Investigations Squad and the Edgewater Police Department launched what the outlet describes as a weeks-long nationwide investigation to identify and track down six suspects scattered across Illinois, Colorado, Minnesota and New York.
Bergen County detectives traveled to Chicago on July 24, where, with help from the Chicago Police Department, they located Jeider Jose Gonzalez Luchon, 25, of Chicago, and Jose A. Uzcategui Pacheco, 24, also of Chicago. Detectives recovered an unserialized handgun at Gonzalez Luchon's residence, per the same report. That same day, Carver County Sheriff's Office deputies in Minnesota arrested Yorwin Jesus Dudamel Gil, 24, of Elmhurst, Illinois, in Chanhassen, Minnesota.
Suspects Located From Missouri To Rikers Island
Two more suspects were already sitting in custody on unrelated charges when investigators caught up with them: Carlos Osorio Rondon, 22, of Aurora, Colorado, was incarcerated in Missouri, and Jhon Dervis Simancas Melean, 30, of Chicago, was incarcerated in Illinois, according to the report. The sixth suspect, Lisandro Ramirez Acosta, 26, of Richmond Hill, New York, was located in East Elmhurst, New York, on September 3 with assistance from the FBI Violent Threat Initiative before being placed into New York City Police Department custody and lodged at the Eric M. Taylor Center on Rikers Island.
All told, the arrests stretched from July into September 2026 across multiple states. All six defendants were eventually extradited to New Jersey, made first appearances in Bergen County Superior Court in Hackensack, and were remanded to the Bergen County Jail, where they remain detained pending trial, the outlet notes.
Charges Carry Severe Mandatory Prison Exposure
All six men face six counts of first-degree armed robbery and multiple weapons charges. Simancas Melean also faces four counts of first-degree aggravated sexual assault, while Gonzalez Luchon faces eight additional counts of the same charge. Under New Jersey law, first-degree armed robbery and first-degree aggravated sexual assault convictions each carry a mandatory state prison sentence of 10 to 20 years per count, according to Lyons & Associates.
Any prison time imposed would be difficult to shorten. Under New Jersey's No Early Release Act, defendants convicted of first-degree violent offenses like these must serve at least 85% of their sentence before becoming eligible for parole, per Justia Law. Separately, New Jersey's Graves Act mandates state prison time with a fixed period of parole ineligibility for unlawful firearm possession and violent crimes committed with firearms, according to Eric Morrell Law, further limiting judicial discretion in the case.
The defendants' continued detention without bail reflects New Jersey's Criminal Justice Reform Law, under which courts use a Pretrial Services risk assessment to allow prosecutors to petition for non-monetary pretrial detention when defendants pose a significant flight risk or public safety danger, according to the New Jersey Legislature.
How Anti-Tren Fits Into A Broader Federal Crackdown
The Edgewater case lands amid an intensifying federal effort against Tren de Aragua and its splinter factions. In February 2026, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York unsealed a 38-count superseding indictment charging 27 members and associates of Anti-Tren with racketeering conspiracy, double murder, kidnapping, and sex trafficking, according to the Department of Justice. Court filings describe Anti-Tren as a splinter group made up largely of former Tren de Aragua members who maintain territory and power through targeted violence against their former parent organization while running sex trafficking and armed robbery operations.
The Treasury Department sanctioned Tren de Aragua as a Transnational Criminal Organization in July 2024, and the State Department formally designated it a Foreign Terrorist Organization in February 2025. Tren de Aragua itself traces back to around 2014, when it formed inside Venezuela's Tocorón prison under gang leader Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, known as Niño Guerrero, before expanding across the Western Hemisphere by exploiting displaced Venezuelan migrants, according to Britannica.
Federal enforcement against the network has continued to spread across the country. In July 2026, the Department of Justice announced federal charges in Illinois and Texas against eight alleged members of Tren de Aragua and Anti-Tren tied to multi-state kidnappings and killings, a case Hoodline covered as it unfolded across Chicago and Texas.
For Edgewater, a 2.4-square-mile Hudson River waterfront borough of 14,336 residents with a violent crime rate 92% below the national average, the case stands out starkly against the town's typical calm, according to figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. The borough sits directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan, a quiet suburban enclave now tied to a violent crime investigation with international gang implications.
