WILLIAMSPORT — A New York City man has admitted he was involved in the theft of a drilling rig in Pennsylvania that ended up in the Dominican Republic.
Magandy Reynoso Tejada, 42, pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. Middle District Court to a charge of conspiracy to transport stolen property in interstate commerce.
He participated in the Jan. 28, 2021, theft of a Kenworth truck equipped with a drilling rig from the storage yard of East West Drilling Inc. in Mifflinburg.
He admitted driving the truck to a New York state location where the drilling rig was painted and then placed on another truck. That truck was driven to Florida and shipped to the Dominican Republic on March 4, 2021.
The value of the stolen rig was $272,000, Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey W. MacArthur said.
Indicted with Tejada was Carlos Brizuela Yere, 52, of New Haven, Connecticut. He was struck by a train and killed while walking on the tracks in East Haven, Connecticut, in April 2025.
Tejada, a native of the Dominican Republic, said through an interpreter in court that he was a U.S. citizen.
Yere and he were accused of being part of a conspiracy in which drilling rigs were stolen, altered and shipped out of the country.
Tejeda was neither a leader nor an organizer of the ring, MacArthur said. He remains free under supervision pending sentencing.