Bronx ‘money mule’ stole life savings from the elderly

A Bronx “money mule” was hit with prison time Tuesday for scamming elderly victims out of their life savings, including a now-deceased woman who needed the money to treat her heart disease.

Edward Rosario-Canela, 48, was sentenced in Hartford, Conn., court to a year and a day in prison after copping to charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, according to CT Insider.

One man scammed alongside his ailing wife had meticulously saved up over the years for retirement — and to have enough money to leave their children.

Some of the cash was also intended to treat his wife’s heart disease. 

Rosario-Canela called the couple one day in 2019 pretending to be their grandson — and that’s when they lost it all.

“When we thought our grandson needed urgent help, we gave YOU all the money we had saved, and put her ailments aside,” said the victim, according to court documents.

“Only a few short months later … I lost my best friend, the mother of my children.”

The couple had already been struggling to keep up with their medical expenses, but gave Rosario-Canela everything he asked for.

All they had wanted to do was “buy as much time together as possible,” the man wrote but helping their grandson came first. 

“You robbed my wife and I not only of our saving [sic] and our peace of mind,” the victim wrote, “but you personally contributed to my wife’s passing.”

When his wife died, he had to turn to family for help — because Rosario-Canela took so much and he couldn’t afford the funeral expenses. 

Rosario-Canela called other unsuspecting families and convinced them to send cash payments to different addresses around Connecticut, primarily in Hartford.

He worked alongside co-conspirators in the Dominican Republic and would take his cut before sending the rest to them, according to the court documents obtained by the CT Insider. 

Similar fraudsters often use hyper-specific information to convince their victims to fork over the cash and make the situation seem plausible.

Another scheme listed in the court documents involved a Pennsylvania resident sending the fraudsters a total of $37,400 in three separate payments, thinking that the scammers were an attorney and court clerk set to represent their son in a drunk driving case. 

Roasio-Canela was released on bond and is required to report to prison on Sept. 16.

He was also ordered to pay $655,683 in restitution.