Feds: Member Of Ring That Trafficked Fentanyl-Laced Heroin Into NJ Bayshore Gets 7½ Years

A member of a drug ring that trafficked large quantities of heroin and cocaine into the Bayshore areas of Monmouth and Middlesex counties must spend the next 7½ years in federal prison.

Jerry DeMarco

05/19/2021 2:18 p.m.

Daniel McHugh, 51, of Sayreville on Wednesday became the latest member of the ring sentenced in U.S. District Court in Trenton in connection with a federally-led sweep.

Co-defendant Brian Hall, 49, of Freehold, meanwhile, was sentenced to eight months of home confinement and three years probation.

Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said the two were part of a network that funneled heroin and cocaine into the Raritan Bayshore, which stretches from the Amboys to Sandy Hook, forming the northernmost part of the Jersey Shore.

Some of the heroin they sold contained the lethal synthetic opioid fentanyl, she said.

Federal investigators used court-authorized wiretaps, undercover buys and other techniques to infiltrate the network before scooping up 15 defendants in a coordinated takedown in November 2018, Honig said.

Confessed supplier Gregory Gillens was sentenced last summer to 10 years.

Guy Jackson, who Honig said regularly supplied McHugh, is scheduled to be sentenced next month.

McHugh, Hall, Gillens and Jackson are among 13 defendants who took deals from the government and pleaded guilty to drug offenses rather than go to trial.

All must serve out just about all of their sentences because there’s no parole in the federal prison system.

McHugh also was sentenced to four years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $3,800 in proceeds that federal authorities said he was carrying when he was arrested.

Charges against one defendant were dismissed and those against the rest are still pending, Honig said.

Participating in the investigation and takedown, Honig said, were:

special agents of the FBI-Newark Division’s Red Bank Resident Agency;
the Jersey Shore Gang and Criminal Organization Task Force (including the Monmouth County Sheriff's Office and police from Bradley Beach, Brick, Howell, Marlboro, Toms River), Department):
special agents of the FBI-Philadelphia Division’s Scranton Resident Agency;
New Jersey State Police;
police from Matawan, Holmdel, Highlands, Old Bridge, Keansburg, Hazlet and Aberdeen;
the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.

Securing the pleas and sentences was Assistant U.S. Attorney Elisa T. Wiygul of Honig’s Criminal Division in Trenton.

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