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Like others before him, Dwayne “Black” Northern – also known as “D Black” – struck a deal with the government rather than face trial.
Northern was among 17 reputed 230 Boys members who were charged in a coordinated heroin, fentanyl and cocaine trafficking case assembled last September by a strike force comprised of agents from the DEA, ATF and state, county and local law enforcement.
Northern pleaded guilty earlier this week to conspiring to have and sell heroin via videoconference before U.S. District Judge Brian R. Martinotti in Newark.
He follows fellow 230 Boys members Tyson Jacobs, 21, who pleaded guilty to dealing in July and Keith “K Murder” Brinkley, who pleaded guilty to the same charges earlier this month.
The gang derives its name from a central location: a liquor store located at 230 Rosa Parks Blvd.
Members and associates, all Paterson residents, have operated primarily along Godwin Avenue, between Rosa Parks Boulevard and East 18th Street, and in the vicinity of the 12th Avenue basketball courts, federal authorities said.
They sell heroin in bricks and bundles that is frequently mixed with fentanyl, a potent, synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin -- and, as a result, potentially fatal – investigators said.
230 Boys members were involved in selling heroin tied to more than 60 fatal overdoses in New Jersey in less than a year, authorities said.
230 Boys are "often involved in ongoing feuds with other local gangs, including the '4K Korner Boys,' a street gang [that] operates primarily on Rosa Parks Boulevard between Keen and Lyon streets, and the Glock Boys, a street gang [that] operates primarily on the north side of Paterson and is often referred to by 230 Boys as 'down the hill'," the complaint sworn by the ATF says.
Members of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) made undercover buys and captured texts and phone calls, among other methods, over the course of a year U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
Carpenito credited special agents and task force officers with the Newark divisions and offices of the ATF and DEA, the New Jersey State Police, Paterson police, the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office and the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office.
He also thanked the U.S. Marshals Service, the Bergen County Sheriff's Office and the Belleville and Livingston police departments for their assistance.
Handling the case for the government is Assistant U.S. Attorney Francesca Liquori of Carpenito’s Organized Crime and Gangs Unit.
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