The arrest of Luis Payano-Perez, 36, was outlined in an indictment returned Thursday by a federal grand jury in Trenton charging him with possessing more than 3½ ounces of the drug with the intent to sell it, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
A confidential informant tipped off the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) that Payano-Perez was prepared to sell the heroin in the parking lot of a Tuckerton Waway the night of Nov. 8, 2018, Carpenito said.
“Law enforcement officers converged on the Wawa parking lot and arrested Payano-Perez” after he showed up to meet the tipster and another government informant, the U.S. attorney said.
A search of Payano-Perez’s vehicle turned up the heroin, he said.
Carpenito credited special agents of HSI Atlantic City and Tuckerton police with the investigation leading to the indictment, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric A. Boden of his Criminal Division in Trenton.
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