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DEA agents followed Jose Pena, a/k/a “Gucci,” 31, as he drove from Cliffside Park to the garage, parked next to a minivan and got into it, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
Approaching the minivan, they immediately spotted the bags of heroin, he said.
They also found the stolen Glock .22-caliber pistol -- loaded with 13 bullets in a large-capacity magazine – “in a backpack within reach of where Pena had been sitting,” Carpenito said.
“They also found tens of thousands of dollars in cash in a secret compartment behind the radio and temperature controls of the minivan,” the U.S. attorney added.
A U.S. District Court judge in Newark ordered that Pena remain in federal custody as the case proceeds.
Carpenito credited special agents of the Newark DEA field office, as well as the DEA New York Strike Force, with the investigation leading to charges against Pena of conspiracy to distribute heroin.
Handling the case is Assistant U.S. Attorney Ari B. Fontecchio of the Carpenito’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force/Narcotics Unit in Newark.
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ALSO SEE: Cliffside Park police said they found an AK-47, two handguns and several rounds of hollow-point ammunition after they stopped a pickup truck packed with seven people before dawn Sunday.
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