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The investigators zeroed in on a mostly industrial neighborhood off the corner of Braun and Marshal streets, Officer-in-Charge Isa Abbassi said.
They watched as Joshua Sari, 22, of Haledon and Jeremy Rodriguez, 26, of Paterson made a number of drug deals, then stopped Rodriguez's vehicle, Abbassi said.
While seizing the heroin, they noticed two other men -- Mark Gadson, 28, of Wayne and James Williams of Paterson -- shoving what turned out to be a 9mm handgun under the back seat.
The detectives pulled Sari over a short time later and found him carrying 20 Xanax pills and a 9mm handgun with a large-capacity magazine, the officer in charge said.
A fifth man, Joshua Maldonado of Paterson, was nabbed as part of the operation after he was found carrying 15 bags of coke, Abbassi said.
In addition to the drugs and weapons, the detectives seized $7,593 in proceeds, he said.
“Thanks to the great police work done by our detectives two guns are off the streets, preventing future instances of gun violence and tragedies associated with them,” Abbassi said. “I want to commend these detectives and their supervisors for making the city of Paterson safer and taking these guns and drugs off our streets.”
All were charged with various drug- and weapons-related counts. Maldonado was released pending court action and the other four found themselves in the Bergen County Jail.
Sari, Rodriguez, Gadson and Williams spent five days in the lockup before a judge in Paterson released all four of them on Wednesday, July 12.
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