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Out-of-town buyers could walk a short stretch of Park Avenue -- a one-way street always thick with vehicles -- and cop their drugs before hopping a train back to wherever they came from.
The setup wasn't so cushy, several accused dealers discovered.
Three of them -- identified as Jamal Jones, 26, Musa Brown, 29, and convicted dealer Shariek Linder, 29 -- used a stash vehicle to sell from in front of a multi-family building on Park Avenue, city Public Safety Director Jerry Speziale said.
This allowed them to "keep a large quantity of narcotics away from them while constantly having a watchful eye of their illegal contraband in direct sight," he said.
At one point, the director said, Linder directed a buyer to Brown as Jones kept an eye out for police.
Surveillance detectives gave the signal and an arrest team of plain-clothed detectives with badges and tactical vests rushed in as the targets all tried to toss drugs, Speziale said.
A search of the stash vehicle turned up even more contraband, he said.
All told, police recovered 331 heroin folds, 377 vials of crack and $1,249 in proceeds, the director said. All three suspects were sent to the Passaic County Jail to await first court appearances.
Detectives later moved up Park Avenue to East 18th Street, where Speziale said they conducted another undercover operation that led to the arrest of a fugitive from New York State, city resident Nashawn Simmons, 44.
They also seized crack and heroin packaged for distribution, along with 41 Ecstasy pills, he said.
A follow-investigation at Main and Grand streets centered on another city traffic hub.
The location, in a neighborhood nicknamed "Mini 4th," is immediately accessible to Route 80 and 19 and the Garden State Parkway, connecting city dealers to hit-and-run buyers who are in and out of the area within minutes.
"It’s also near the vicinity of a city homeless shelter, and the methadone clinic, which has a large influx of suspected users, allowing drug dealers to easily distribute [drugs]," Speziale said.
Arrested with 10 capsules and two bags of crack was a man identified as Jacoryn West.
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