Mother, daughter charged with operating retail theft ring out of Valley Stream home

A mother and daughter were charged with operating a retail theft and fencing ring out of the mother's Valley Stream home, after an investigation found they had more than $160,000 worth of stolen merchandise, authorities said.

Maria "Glenny" Betances, 47, of Valley Stream, and Leslie Cruz, 24, of East Elmhurst, Queens, were arraigned last week on charges of criminal possession of stolen property, grand larceny and conspiracy after a probe found more than 5,000 pieces of stolen goods for resale to ship to the Dominican Republic, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz and New York State Police Superintendent Steven G. James announced on Thursday.

"Retail theft hurts all consumers and leads to higher prices on the checkout line," Katz said in a statement.

The mother and daughter allegedly directed four people in their booster crew to steal large quantities of goods from retailers, including Marshalls, TJ Maxx, Home Goods, CVS and Ulta Beauty in Queens, Staten Island and Nassau, Westchester and Rockland counties.

The crew sold the items to Betances at a reduced rate and she would ship the items from her home, Cruz's apartment or other locations in Queens to the Dominican Republic.  

Betances operated a daycare center, Smile Bright Day Care, from her Valley Stream home. The daycare served children ages 6 weeks to 12 years, prosecutors said.

Between Feb. 10, and July 16, undercover officers made 10 sales of purported stolen goods to Betances and her daughter. The duo paid anywhere from 17% to 3 % of the retail value of the goods, which included beauty products and clothing, the investigation said.

During the first sale, Betances told investigatorsshe was interested in buying high-end beauty products from Dior, Gucci, Prada, Chanel and other brands. She also allegedly requested 2,000 pairs of women’s skinny jeans from American Eagle.

On April 14, the investigation found a blue shipping drum was taken from Betances’ garage by a shipping company and loaded into a truck.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol then placed a hold on the barrel at the shipper’s facility. A court-authorized search of the drum found 760 allegedly stolen beauty items with a combined retail value of $22,419.

On July 21, police executed a search warrant at Betances’ home and seized 4,272 allegedly stolen items with a combined retail value of $131,114 including cosmetics, sex toys, pajamas and clothing as well as hundreds of broken security devices and alarms and tools to remove security devices. A total of $10,000 in cash was also recovered.

That same day, police search warrant executed at Cruz’s home recovered of 101 pieces of allegedly stolen merchandise valued at about $6,067. A total of $20,000 in cash was also recovered.

Betances and Cruz were  charged with second-degree criminal possession of stolen property, second-degree attempted criminal possession of stolen property, third-degree grand larceny and fourth-degree conspiracy, prosecutors said. Betances is additionally charged with endangering the welfare of a child because she sold the stolen items while she operated the daycare.

Betances was arraigned on July 24 before Judge Thomas Wright, and Cruz was arraigned on July 22 before Judge Lana Schlesinger.

They are both expected to return to court on Sept. 29 and face 5 to 15 years in prison if convicted.

Two members of the crew were placed in custody in connection with other matters and are expected to be arraigned at a later date. They remain at large, prosecutors said.