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Khalif Toombs, 31, of Egg Harbor Township previously admitted directing an operation that regularly brought heroin by the kilo from Paterson into Atlantic City.
FBI agents used wiretaps, video surveillance, confidential informants and more to infiltrate the organization, which sold heroin in bags stamped with, among other names, “AK-47,” “Apple,” “Fortnite,” “Rolex,” “Frank Lucas,” “Bentley,” “Pandora,” and “9½,” U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
Toombs previously admitted in court that he managed and supervised the organization, trafficking between three and 10 kilos of heroin during the period of the investigation throughout Atlantic County, Carpenito said.
The former South Carolina State Bulldogs point guard joined 13 other members of the network who’ve taken deals from the government and pleaded guilty – in some instances, testifying or providing information -- rather than go to trial.
Eight other indicted defendants have cases pending.
Toombs will have to serve just about all of the 11 years and 2 months of his sentence because there’s no parole in the federal prison system.
U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler also sentenced him in Camden on Monday to five years of supervised release for his guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute more than one kilo of heroin.
Carpenito credited special agents of the FBI’s Safe Streets South Jersey Violent Incident and Gang Task Force’s Atlantic City Resident Agency, the FBI Newark Field office, Atlantic City police, the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office, the Atlantic County Sheriff’s Department and Pleasantville police with the investigation leading to the charges.
He also thanked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration and New Jersey State Police for their assistance.
The investigation was conducted under the auspices of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), which is headquartered in Washington, DC but operates nationwide.
The task force’s principal mission, Carpenito said, is to “identify, disrupt and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and money laundering organizations, and those primarily responsible for the nation’s illegal drug supply.”
Handling the case for the government is Assistant U.S. Attorney Martha K. Nye of Carpenito’s Criminal Division in Trenton.
NOTE: Carpenito identified the 13 others who took guilty pleas as : – Wilbert Toombs, Quadir Stanley, Dean Johnson, Khalif Davis, Joseph Aversa, Thomas Randall, Mayda Hernandez, Sarah Taliaferro, James Blackwell, Philip Surace, Nasir Brown, Karon Carey, and David Ramirez.
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