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Detectives Mustafa Dombayci, Mohammad Bashir, and Yamil Pimienta spotted Devon Williams, 21, putting a clear plastic bag of the drug inside another bag on East 29th Street near 17th Avenue around 8 p.m. Tuesday, Police Director Jerry Speziale said.
Williams ducked into a nearby business when he saw them coming, but they followed him in, Speziale said.
They took Williams into custody after finding the marijuana in one bag and a loaded .9mm Kel-Tec semi-automatic handgun in the other, the director said, adding that they also seized $322 in suspected drug cash.
Police charged Williams with several weapons and drug offenses and sent him to the Passaic County Jail to await a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court.
They were sending the gun to the New Jersey State Police lab to determine whether it may have been used in crimes, Speziale said.
Concentrating larger numbers of uniformed police and detectives in the most violent drug-filled neighborhoods "is paying big dividends by removing drugs and dangerous weapons from our streets,” he said.
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