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TOP: The Almonte brothers; BOTTOM: Rosario, Montas, Tristan, Bujarski
Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli announced the results of the three separate cases at once:
The most notable involved a pot operation that the prosecutor said was operating out of a Dumont home. Investigators sat on the house for nearly a month, he said, before they got the break they needed to close the deal on brothers Junior (far left in photo) and Surisadal Almonte.
Strangers and others went in and out of Junior’s home on Stratford Road, Molinelli said. Then, on Friday, Surisadal pulled up in a white BMW X5, was met his brother at the front door, then left after a brief visit — tossing a black bag into his car, the prosecutor said.
Molinelli’s investigators called ahead, and Fort Lee police stopped the car at George Washington Bridge. Inside the Beamer they found 3.5 pounds of pot, he said. Surisadal was immediately arrested.
Word was sent back to Dumont, where Molinelli said investigators watched Junior walk out of his house with several bags that he loaded into a white Cadillac Escalade parked in the driveway.
He drove the vehicle up the street, then walked back to the house and came out about a half-hour later with his wife and three children, Molinelli said.
As they got into the Escalade, his wife behind the wheel, Junior pulled away in a black BMW X5 that also had been parked in his driveway, the prosecutor said.
Investigators moved in, stopping both vehicles, and discovering five pounds of pot and $24,000.00 in cash. The brothrs are being held on $100,000 bail each in the Bergen County Jail.
Authorities didn’t say so, but the fact that the brothers were brought into court on Tuesday, before any word had been given to the media about the case, suggests an attempt to track down their suppliers.
Don’t be surprised if they’re both soon released on lower bails.
In another case, Luis Montas, 24, and Carla Rosario, 23, were charged with drug possession after trying to sell an undercover cop 1,500 Ecstasy pills worth more than $25,000 if sold individually on the street for $5,250, Molinelli said. Investigators arrested them at a pre-arranged location in Paramus near the Banana Republic store where Rosario has worked the past year as a clerk.
A judge ordered the unemployed Montas, of the Bronx, held on $100,000 bail at the Bergen County Jail, while setting a significantly lower amount for Rosario, $15,000, which would point to her as no more than a suspected accessory.
In the end, she could help provide the corroborative evidence that would put Montas in prison.
Finally, there’s the case of Shanee Bujarski, 23, and and Tristan Dean, 20, two unemployed New Yorkers who were selling 300 Ecstasy pills worth $6,000 on the street to undercover cops in Paramus — following a previous sale — when they were pinched on Monday, the prosecutor announced Wednesday.
Bujarski’s bail was set at $50,000 and Dean’s at $10,000.00, he said.
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