Pair arrested after emerging from manhole near hotel where Netanyahu stays, police say

A citywide manhunt led to the arrest of two suspects who New York City police say emerged from a manhole just outside a hotel where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regularly stays during the UN General Assembly.

The suspects’ trip into New York’s underground predawn Wednesday appears to have nothing to do with targeting the hotel, where Netanyahu was expected to stay the next day, police said. It’s instead part of a citywide crime pattern of individuals going into the sewers, looking for valuables and scrap metal that are swept into the system, police said.

Two Queens men, Kevin Rodriguez, 26, and Samuel Reveron, 25, were charged with criminal trespass. They were released on Friday morning after an arraignment in Manhattan criminal court.

Brian Kennedy, an attorney for Reveron, denied any connection between his client’s alleged conduct and the United Nations or any international government officials. It’s “entirely plausible” that someone might go into the sewers looking for valuables, Kennedy told CNN. “Desperation leads to great efforts.”

CNN has reached out to Rodriguez’s attorney for comment.

Because of the heightened security around the UN General Assembly and the proximity of the underground incursion to a highly sensitive location, authorities prioritized identifying the individuals and determining why they were beneath the hotel in the pipes and tunnels of the city’s sewer system.

The NYPD and US Secret Service reviewed videos, license plate readers and other tools to try and identify the intruders, officials said.

The investigation involved the use of a combination of modern police technology and old-fashioned shoe leather, according to law enforcement officials.

Detectives pulled video from the major case unit going door-to-door along Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, where witnesses said three men were seen getting into a pair of vehicles just after 4 a.m.

When a picture of the license plate of one of the cars was developed, it was entered into the NYPD license plate reader system. The system gave detectives a pattern of the car’s travels, including when it arrived and when it departed the Park Avenue location. It also allowed detectives to learn the registered owner and to pull body cam video of him from prior car stops for traffic violations.

Detectives went to the location where the vehicle was registered and staked out the car until the suspect approached the vehicle and was taken into custody. It is not clear whether the two suspects were arrested together or separately. Additional suspects are being sought.

The arrests fit into a pattern of incursions into the city’s sewer and underground tunnels over the past few months, where citizens have taken cell phone video of people going into manhole covers or coming out of them during predawn hours wearing hip waders and boots. Detectives say in a number of cases where arrests were made the suspects made statements that they were just looking for valuables, including gold chains, rings, or other metals such as copper that can be resold.

In the end, a case that set off alarm bells to the NYPD and the US Secret Service about national security, and the potential for foreign agents or terrorists, ended with some high-end detective work leading to an unglamorous motive.

CNN’s Lauren del Valle contributed to this story.

纽约市警方展开全市范围的搜捕行动，逮捕了两名嫌疑人。警方称，这两名嫌疑人是从以色列总理本杰明·内塔尼亚胡在联合国大会期间经常下榻的一家酒店外的下水道井盖里钻出来的。

警方表示，嫌疑人周三凌晨进入纽约地下通道的行动似乎与袭击内塔尼亚胡预计次日入住的酒店无关。相反，这只是纽约市一种常见的犯罪模式，即有人进入下水道寻找被冲入污水系统的贵重物品和废金属。

两名来自皇后区的男子，26岁的凯文·罗德里格斯和25岁的塞缪尔·雷韦隆，被控非法侵入。他们在曼哈顿刑事法庭提审后，于周五上午获释。

雷维隆的律师布莱恩·肯尼迪否认其当事人涉嫌的行为与联合国或任何国际政府官员有任何关联。肯尼迪告诉CNN，有人进入下水道寻找贵重物品“完全有可能”。“绝望会让人做出极端的事情。”

CNN已联系罗德里格斯的律师寻求置评。

由于联合国大会周围安保措施加强，且地下入侵地点靠近高度敏感地点，当局优先确定了入侵者的身份，并查明了他们为何会出现在酒店下方的城市下水道管道和隧道中。

官员表示，纽约市警察局和美国特勤局审查了视频、车牌识别器和其他工具，试图识别入侵者。

据执法官员称，此次调查结合了现代警用技术和传统的实地走访。

侦探们调取了重案组的监控录像，在曼哈顿中城公园大道沿线挨家挨户进行走访。目击者称，凌晨4点刚过，看到三名男子上了两辆车。

当其中一辆车的车牌照片显影后，警方将其录入纽约市警察局的车牌识别系统。该系统为侦探们提供了这辆车的行驶轨迹，包括它何时到达和离开公园大道。此外，该系统还帮助侦探们查明了车主信息，并调取了该车主之前因违反交通规则被警方拦停时的执法记录仪视频。

侦探前往车辆登记地点，对车辆进行监视，直到嫌疑人靠近车辆并将其逮捕。目前尚不清楚两名嫌疑人是同时被捕还是分别被捕。警方正在追捕其他嫌疑人。

近几个月来，该市下水道和地下隧道屡遭入侵，市民用手机拍摄到有人在黎明前穿着齐腰防水靴和靴子进入或走出井盖的视频，此次逮捕行动与这些事件的模式相符。侦探表示，在一些被捕案件中，嫌疑人供认他们只是在寻找贵重物品，包括金链、戒指或其他可以转售的金属，例如铜。

最终，这起案件引起了纽约警察局和美国特勤局对国家安全以及外国特工或恐怖分子的潜在威胁的警觉，但经过一些高水平的侦查工作，最终揭露了一个并不光鲜的动机。

CNN的劳伦·德尔·瓦莱对本文亦有贡献。