A Jersey City man will spend the next four and a half years in federal prison after helping run a cargo theft ring that hit logistics warehouses across New Jersey and Pennsylvania, taking off with everything from military computers to luxury fragrances.
Derek Spivey, 38, was sentenced on June 1, 2026, to 48 months behind bars for his role in the conspiracy. Because the crimes violated the terms of his supervised release from an older felony firearm conviction, U.S. District Judge Edward S. Kiel tacked on an extra eight months to his sentence.
Spivey had previously pleaded guilty to an information charging him with conspiracy to transport stolen goods, alongside a separate guilty plea for the supervised release violation.
Court documents lay out a string of highly lucrative warehouse burglaries carried out by Spivey and his co-conspirators, Jamil Bethea, Jamal Reid, and Rasheed Sharpe. The crew targeted trailers parked at shipping hubs, broke into them, and then hauled the stolen merchandise back into New Jersey to flip it for cash.
The crew’s timeline of thefts included:
- January 2025: The theft of $50,000 worth of Department of Defense laptops from a facility in Pennsylvania.
- March 2025: A massive haul of high-end perfume valued at $200,000 from another Pennsylvania warehouse.
- March 2025: A robbery yielding $20,000 worth of liquor from a warehouse in New Jersey.
Spivey is not the first member of the ring to face prison time. Sharpe was already sentenced to 41 months in prison after pleading guilty for his involvement. Bethea and Reid have also entered guilty pleas and are waiting to find out their sentences later this year.
The case was investigated by the FBI’s Atlantic City Resident Agency, with help from the FBI’s Philadelphia Field Division. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Bender handled the prosecution for the government in Camden federal court.
READ: Fentanyl, Firearms, And Federal Prison: Massive Drug Ring Busted In South Carolina
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