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In exchange for their pleas, Tyquan Daniels and Thomas Zimmerman, 27, face a minimum of 33 years in federal prison each, while Ali Hill, 29, is looking at a minimum of 20 years.
There's no parole in the federal prison system, which means Daniels and Zimmerman would be turning 60 when either tastes freedom again. Hill would be nearing 50.
Federal prosecutors didn't say whether the deals accepted by the East Orange trio require them to testify against the drug operation's accused ringleader, Michael Healy.
Healy had discovered a rat in the crew, so he ordered members of his Brick City Brims Bloods to kill the man, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip Sellinger said.
Zimmerman and other gang members goofed when they went to the informant's Bloomfield home in February 2018 and "shot and killed an innocent bystander, believing the bystander was the informant," Sellinger said.
Realizing their mistake, Daniels, Zimmerman, Hill and others conspired to get it right, the U.S. attorney said.
The following month, he said, two masked gunmen shot the real informant at close range, killing him.
Daniels also admitted killing a member of a rival Bloods gang in May 2018, Sellinger said.
Rather than risk trial, the trio all pleaded guilty to racketeering-related crimes in U.S. District Court in Newark. Sentencing dates weren't announced.
Sellinger credited special agents of the FBI, the Essex and Union county prosecutor's offices, police from Newark, East Orange and Montclair, and the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services' Intelligence and Investigative Division with the investigation leading to the pleas, secured by Senior Trial Counsel Robert L. Frazer of his Organized Crime Gang Unit and Assistant U.S. Attorney Naazneen Khan, the deputy chief of Sellinger's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Unit.
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