3 Baltimore men robbed, killed Queens pot dealer, left body in U-Haul van: feds

A trio of Baltimore men came to Queens to find cause dealers to rob, murdering 1 of their victims and leaving his zip-tied corpse successful a U-Haul van afloat of weed, national prosecutors said Wednesday.

Jerome Waters, 23, who goes by the nickname “The Engineer,” and his accomplices, Calvin Israel, 23, and William Barnett, 27, are accused of heading up to Queens the nighttime of July 24, looking to rob the victim, Julian Mejias, and a 2nd dealer.

Waters and Barnett got successful interaction with their targets, pretending they were funny successful buying marijuana. But erstwhile they showed up astatine the victims’ stash house, they pulled retired guns and zip ties, and summoned the remainder of their crew, according to an indictment announced Wednesday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District.

Israel rented a U-Haul van and the unit piled 30 pounds of cookware into the vehicle, the feds allege. They forced Mejias and the 2nd trader into the van and a Jeep, and drove them astir Queens, demanding much drugs and money, the feds allege.

At immoderate constituent connected the greeting of July 25, arsenic Israel drove the rental van, 1 of the robbers changeable Mejias respective times successful the head, the feds allege. The crooked unit past fled backmost to Maryland.

Police recovered the unfortunate hanging halfway retired of a van connected July 25 astir 1:05 a.m. connected 208th St. adjacent 32nd Drive. successful Bayside, Queens. Police aboriginal towed distant the van, above. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News)

“This was not a spur-of-the-moment crime, but 1 cautiously choreographed,” prosecutors said successful a Wednesday tribunal filing. “The defendants and their co-conspirators traveled for astir 4 hours via a caravan of vehicles and participants from Maryland to New York.”

Along the way, they were recorded by licence sheet readers and surveillance cameras, prosecutors said. They near fingerprints, determination information placed them successful respective cardinal spots connected to the robbery, and a witnesser identified Waters and Israel arsenic the robbers, according to the feds.

Police recovered Mejias hanging halfway retired of the van astatine astir 1:05 a.m. successful beforehand of a location connected a quiescent residential thoroughfare successful Bayside, connected 208th St. adjacent 32nd Drive. The 43-year-old Long Island nonmigratory inactive had a zip necktie binding 1 hand, and was surrounded by bags of weed.

Authorities successful Maryland arrested Waters and Israel connected Wednesday. Barnett remains astatine large.

“As alleged, the defendants’ premeditated robbery and kidnapping that resulted successful a convulsive decease demonstrates the important menace of guns and drugs successful our communities,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said Wednesday.

All 3 men were indicted successful Brooklyn Federal Court and look mandatory beingness sentences if convicted astatine trial.