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Davon Warren is expected to turn himself in shortly.
Besides narcotics, the sweep turned up a handgun believed stolen from a police officer in Passaic County, a law enforcement source close to the investigation told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
After years of poor morale — and, it turns out, alleged wrongdoing and official misconduct — former Chief Charles “Ken” Zisa is out, facing charges for falsifying reports to keep his ex-girlfriend and her son out of trouble.
The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office is monitoring the once-troubled department, now being run, firmly and professionally, by Padilla.
One of the hallmarks of the new regime is cooperation with other agencies. While Zisa sought to run what essentially was an internal operation — even skipping the regular meetings of the Bergen County police chiefs — Padilla boasts: “We’ll go to whatever resources we have to in order to protect our citizens.”
That means loaning an officer to the prosecutor’s office who just so happened to be the lynchpin in this morning’s drug sweep. Twenty-five people were arrested, and the 26th has already called and said he’s turning himself in, the captain told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
“It wouldn’t have happened without [the Hackensack officer’s] cooperation and connections,” the captain said. “By tomorrow morning, we’ll be batting a thousand with this.
Most of those arrested are 19 to 21 years old. An alleged pot buyer is over 50. Two accused cocaine dealers are in their 50s.
Then there’s Dennis Ward, 57, of 221 Williams Street, Englewood, who is charged with selling Xanax.
“We’ve been working on this since July,” Padilla told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “We hope this makes a serious dent in the street-level traffic.”
There should be other, longer-lasting effects, as well. One involves morale department-wide, while the other speaks directly to the public’s confidence in safety in the county seat.
When it comes to quality of life issues, street crime like drug dealing ranks high on the list:
It frightens residents, whose children may pass during transactions — putting them directly in harm’s way should the the deal go sour.
It lowers property values.
And it leads to filthier conditions and other crimes that make a neighborhood less safe and secure.
At headquarters, the mood clearly has changed, as several officers have already told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
Included in this morning’s raid was a brand new, specially trained entry team of patrol officers who made it safer for Narcotics Division detectives to roust and rustle up the accused bad guys.
“We want people to know we do things differently now,” Padilla told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “It’s a new era here.”
Officers involved in the investigation made secretly-recorded undercover buys of pot, cocaine, Ecstasy, Xanax, and cocaine from several of the more than two dozen people charged today. Many of them were operating near schools, police said.
A few alleged buyers were snagged, as well.
Those taken into custody include Terry Nelson, 35, of 23 Poplar Avenue, Hackensack, who was found carrying a stolen handgun believed taken from a police officer in Passaic County. Nelson, a convicted felon, was charged with several related offenses, as well as with trying to sell drugs.
Another accused dealer, Christopher Smith 39, of 230 Polifly Road, Apt. 5, Hackensack, tried to avoid arrest by swallowing the crack he was carrying, Padilla said.
Charged with distributing cocaine are:
Arnold Christmas, 52, of 300 Third Street, 2nd Floor; Johnny White aka John Adams 29, of 70 Myer Street, 1st Floor; Linwood Eason, 50, of 46 Anderson Street, Apt. C9; Abdebola Bamisille 23, of 160 Berdan Place, Jarrett Bruce, 27, of 329 Railroad Avenue, all Hackensack; and Kadean Warren 19, of 53 Brookway Avenue, Englewood, and Almuta Shariff, 19, of 236 Harrison Avenue, 2nd Floor, Garfield.
The rest:
Lawrence Jennings, 23, of 190 Central Avenue, Apt. 1, Hackensack, and Christopher Leverson, 20, of 64 Prospect Avenue, Apt. A7, Hackensack: distributing marijuana within 1,000 feet of Hackensack High School;
Vernon York, 20, of 316 Marvin Street, Hackensack: distributing pot within 1,000 feet of the Fanny Mayer Hillers School;
Rashad Wells, 21, of 198 Central Avenue, Hackensack; possession with the intent to distribute marijuana within 1,000 feet of Hackensack High School;
Warren Demmin, 20, of 225 Catalpa Avenue, Hackensack: possession and distribution of marijuana with 1,000 feet of Hackensack Middle School;
Jamaar Lyn, 23, of 104 Grove Street, 2nd Floor, Hackensack: distributing Ecstasy,
Eboni S. Harris, 25, of 285 Union Street, Lodi: possession with the intent to distribute cocaine;
John A. Butcher, Jr., 21, of 246 Third Street, Hackensack; Michelle Lake, 30, of 6-8 Prospect Avenue #103, Hackensack: distributing marijuana;
Thabiti Townsend, who just turned 30 on Wednesday, of 267 Washington Avenue, Apt. 2, Hackensack: possession with the intent to distribute marijuana.
Alleged buyers were charged, as well. They include:
John Basile, 41, of 41 Coolidge Place, Hackensack: marijuana possession;
Sheldon Pinson, who turned 28 on Tuesday, of 141 Berry Street, Hackensack: possession of marijuana;
Jarod Chisholm, 26, of 190 Central Avenue, Hackensack: pot possession;
Larry Harris, 52, of 115 Sussex Street, Hackensack; marijuana possession and trying to conceal the crime by discarding it after he bought it.
Search warrants turned up various amounts of pot at two locations, Padilla added.
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