This IS Bail Reform? Judge Releases Accused Big-Time Paterson Dealer Busted In $1M Drug Raid

Examples of offenders who are repeatedly caught and immediately released have dominated the debate over bail reform.

New Jersey got a different example, however, with the arrest of a Dominican national described by authorities as a big-time Paterson drug dealer.

Roughly 3½ pounds of fentanyl powder and 1,300 fentanyl pills were among nearly $1 million worth of narcotics seized from Pedro Rodriguez Avalo, 30, who New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said was "distributing drugs in bulk."

Rodriguez ran a drug mill on Lily Street in the area of North 7th Street, less than a five-minute walk from the B.J. Wilkerson Memorial Child Development Center on Haledon Avenue, the attorney general said.

Members of the New Jersey State Police (NJSP) Drug Trafficking North Unit conducted the investigation, then got help in a June 27 takedown from the NJSP TEAMS North Unit, K-9 Unit, and NJSP Hazmat Unit, Platkin said.

Rodriguez, who was seized during the raid, was charged with first-degree operating and maintaining a drug production facility and two counts of possession with the intent to distribute drugs, among other offenses.

Despite the severity of the charges, Rodriguez spent exactly a week in jail before a judge ordered his release over the objection of prosecutors.

The search and arrest marked the third takedown of a major drug distribution operation in Paterson in the past three months following Platkin's takeover of the Paterson Police Department.

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