Ex-con Ahmad Singletary, 24, and Joseph Young, 26, both of Newark, committed three of the robberies last Sept. 5, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
Four more holdups — also in a single day — followed exactly a week later, the U.S. attorney said.
Singletary “threatened, assaulted, and struck victims in the head” with a Ruger 9 mm P95 handgun, injuring all of them, a complaint filed by the ATF says.
The robberies were committed during the early-morning hours on or near highways in Essex, Middlesex and Union counties, Sellinger said.
Four of the victimized gas stations are in Woodbridge, two are in Union and one is in West Orange, according to the ATF complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Newark.
Singletary had already served two different state prison sentences when he was released on May 31 of last year — three months before the robbery spree.
The ATF said he and Young wore black ski masks and black clothing in the holdups, each of which was over in four minutes or less.
They used a white Audi A4 that had been reported stolen out of Shrewsbury during the three Sept. 5 robberies, the complaint says. It was driven by a third man whom authorities didn’t identify or describe in any detail, heavily suggesting that he’s a cooperating witness.