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By noon today, 17 of those charged had been arrested and were being processed by the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office as part of a multi-agency operation dubbed “Operation White Silk.” They included Keith Bye, 50, of Hackensack, who authorities said was a major player in the ring.
Five other defendants remained at large.
Those arrested join accused ringleader, Aurelio Gutierrez, of Paterson, who was arrested on July 11 along with 47-year-old Daniel Blanco of the Bronx on Broadway in Paterson.
Gutierrez was selling 110 Oxycodone pills to Blanco when investigators moved in, Acting Attorney General John G. Hoffman said.
Executing search warrants that day, detectives seized more than 500 oxycodone pills from Gutierrez’s vehicle and home on East 17th Street, he said.
Demand was so high, authorities said, that Gutierrez ordinarily disposed of each shipment in less than 24 hours.
These included high-dose “blues,” which each contained 30 milligrams of oxycodone and sold for $10 to $30 on the street, and “bananas,” oblong, yellow Percocets that contained 10 milligrams of oxy and went for $5 to $8.
Gutierrez used several runners to obtain the pills and other prescription drugs, such as Xanax.
State authorities said these include Larry Garrett, 49, of Lodi, and 48-year-old John Mosley of Hackensack.
Some of the runners bought pills from low-income residents of Paterson who had legitimate prescriptions, obtained fraudulent prescriptions that they filled at area pharmacies or used prescriptions for their own medical conditions.
Gutierrez paid the runners “enough for them to make a profit, reselling the pills at a substantial markup to other dealers,” Hoffman said.
“Oxycodone pain pills are at the heart of an epidemic of opiate addiction that is killing too many young people in New Jersey, either directly through pill overdoses or by moving them on to the cheaper alternative of heroin, which is being sold on the streets at lethal purity levels,” Hoffman said.
“Many factors drive the diversion of opiate painkillers, including overprescribing of the drugs, the prevalence of prescription fraud, and the high price these pills command on the street,” added Elie Honig, director of the state Division of Criminal Justice.
Honig said the ring that “Operation Silk” dismantled “reaped its supply from a variety of sources.”
Honig also said that those charged were resourceful, but so were authorities.
The investigation began in March, when the state Division of Criminal Justice, the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) joined forces in a probe of high-level black market drug rings.
They were assisted by the New Jersey State Police and the Paterson Police Department.
“It is essential that law enforcement work together to eliminate narcotic distribution networks of this nature and send those involved in these schemes to prison,” Passaic County Sheriff Richard H. Berdnik said. “The only way of truly reducing the amount of oxycodone on our streets is through comprehensive long-term investigations of this nature.”
According to Hoffman:
The investigation was conducted for the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau by Detective Kevin Weinkauff, who is lead detective, Deputy Attorney General Ray Mateo, and North Squad Detectives Louis Renshaw, Travis Johnson, Toni Petreski, Miguel Rodriguez and Luis Cruz, under the supervision of Lt. Christopher Donohue, Sgt. Ho Chul Shin, Deputy Chief of Detectives Chuck Foley, Deputy Attorney General Lauren Scarpa-Yfantis, who is Deputy Bureau Chief, and Deputy Attorney General Christopher Romanyshyn, who is Bureau Chief.
The investigation was conducted for the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office by Detective Stephan Lantigua, Detective Eric Fajardo, and Detective Johnnie Ramos, under the supervision of the Director of the Bureau of Narcotics Mario Recinos and Detective Sgt. Marco Catania.
Hoffman also thanked the DEA’s New Jersey Division, State Police and Paterson police.
The defendants (*indicates a fugitive):
LEADER
Aurelio Gutierrez, 59, of Paterson.
DEALERS (or “pill brokers,” who bought oxycodone pills and other prescription drugs from Gutierrez for distribution in North Jersey. In some instances, they supplied pills to him):
Keith Bye, 50, of Hackensack
Daniel Blanco, 47, of the Bronx, N.Y., arrested with Gutierrez,
William Hernandez, 39, of Paterson,
Thomas Lamera, 58, of Warren,
*David Licata, Jr., 34, of Nutley,
Marcos Moya, 33, of Paterson,
Jason Wagoner, 35, of Lafayette
RUNNERS (obtained oxycodone pills and other prescription narcotics and sold them to Gutierrez):
Larry Garrett, 49, of Lodi,
John Mosley, 48, of Hackensack,
Shakera Brown, 53, of Paterson,
Dwight Nero, 57, of Paterson,
*Robert Ayala, 54, of Paterson,
Omar Gonzalez, 42, of Paterson,
Daniel Maldonado, 55, of Paterson,
*David Reames, 52, of Paterson,
Antoine Watkins, 31, of Paterson,
*Nilda Ortiz, 61, of Paterson,
Maria Centeno, 48, of Paterson,
*Carmen Shannon, 45, of Paterson
Those arrested were being held in the Passaic County Jail.
Bail for Gutierrez was set at $275,000 cash, while for the others it ranged from $50,000 to $150,000.
Gutierrez is charged with leading a narcotics trafficking network, a first-degree crime that carries a sentence of life in prison, with 25 years of parole ineligibility. He also is charged with distribution of a controlled dangerous substance (CDS), possession of CDS with intent to distribute, and conspiracy to distribute CDS, all in the second degree.
The others are charged with second-degree conspiracy to distribute drugs.
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