A Queens couple ran a massive mob-style theft ring targeting major chains such as Macy’s and Sephora and swiping luxury brands to rake in millions of dollars, officials said Tuesday.
Sticky-fingered husband and wife Cristopher Guzman, 35, and Yvelisse Guzman Batista, 29, earned themselves the dubious distinction of being the first criminals charged under a new state law aimed at helping to take out such widespread online schemes, authorities said.
“Listen, this is going to be real simple,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a press conference touting the new law — which criminalizes the “fostering the sale of stolen goods,’’ particularly using the Web and middlemen.
“We’ve had enough with criminals preying on our citizens,” Hochul said. “We are sick and tired of our citizens feeling they’re vulnerable to — whether it’s random crimes on the streets or whether it’s these sophisticated organized crime rings. And we are coming after you.”
Guzman and Batista allegedly sat atop what Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz called a “large-scale retail theft and fencing operation” built upon a thieves’ guild that delivered them stolen high-end makeup, perfume, beauty products, designer clothing and accessories from up and down the East Coast.
The Guzmans allegedly ordered crews to jack certain items from stores, then sold the goods out of their Kew Gardens home or a storefront in the Dominican Republic under the name Yvelissa Fashion, LLC, Katz said in a statement.
Other times, the couple paid off truck drivers a la the mob to bring them loads of products right from the manufacturers’ warehouses instead of to retailers such as Sephora and Ulta Beauty, where they were supposed to go, Katz said.
“The defendants ran a widespread fencing operation that offered stolen merchandise for sale far below retail prices,” Katz said, adding that the Guzmans made more than $2 million in their illicit endeavor.
“These arrests once again prove that consumers should be extremely careful about buying items on social media or from unfamiliar vendors,” she said.
“As we approach the holiday season, take great care to know the genesis of the products you are buying.”
Guzman and Batista — along with Batista’s mom, Rosa Rodriguez Santana, 59; and Johanny Almonte Reyes, 33, of Fresh Meadow, Queens — were slapped with a litany of charges, including criminal possession of stolen property, conspiracy, attempted criminal possession of stolen property and fostering the sale of stolen goods.
Another alleged accomplice, 29-year-old Tiffany Leon Fuentes of Ozone Park, of Queens was hit with similar charges.
At the height of the ring’s operation, the defendants were pulling in $50,000 in stolen goods every week, Katz said.
The crooks allegedly shared their profits with the street crews, handing them about 10% to 15% of each heist’s retail value.
The illicit goods were peddled through online ads or out of a brick-and-mortar boutique in Santiago, Dominican Republic.
Authorities latched onto the ring after the New York State Police infiltrated it, then brought the case to the Queens DA’s office, a law-enforcement source told The Post.
State and federal investigators slowly closed in, surveilling the Guzmans’ Kew Gardens home and an apartment in Fresh Meadows, Katz said.
Undercovers sold three different loads of purportedly stolen goods to the couple, which included beauty products and perfume worth about $23,000, authorities said.
In return, the suspects gave them about 15% of the retail value, or nearly $3,800, officials said.
The Guzmans allegedly then requested the agents steal certain in-demand brands for them to sell.
Another undercover operative bought a pricey perfume from the Guzmans’ product-laden basement, which was fully stocked with shelves of merchandise, the DA said.
Fuentes, one of the alleged accomplices, was caught on video stealing makeup and cosmetics from Ulta stores in Chester, NJ, and Towson, Md., and bringing them to the Guzmans’ fencing spot, officials said.
Earlier this year, shipments of Sol de Janeiro products worth nearly $800,000 miraculously disappeared — and investigators say the Guzmans paid to have the drivers bring them right to them.
Bank records showed that the Guzmans made hundreds of payments to scores of “vendedoras” — the Spanish word for “sellers” — from January 2022 to September 2024 worth about $230,000, Katz said.
The couple allegedly shipped stolen merchandise to the Dominican Republic in big, blue, plastic barrels — some of which were seized by Homeland Security agents earlier this month.
When authorities raided the Guzmans’ home, the Fresh Meadows apartment and another spot in Briarwood in Queens on Friday, they found a cornucopia of contraband — including 50,000 retail products worth more than $1 million from companies such as Maybelline, Fenty, Dior, Yve Saint Laurent, Versace, Valentino, Prada, Zara, Anthropologie and Victoria’s Secret.
They also seized a money counter, label maker, shipping barrels, ledgers and two polymer ghost-gun kits with parts of an unfinished firearm.
The DA’s office said the defendants are scheduled to appear in court Jan. 15 — and face up to 25 years if convicted.
-Additional reporting by Vaughn Golden
