27°
Hassan Akeem Coleman, 36, kept the drugs, weapon and ammo in a sliding drawer in the kitchen of his fifth-floor downtown apartment at the Woolworth Residences on Main Street, they said.
That made the youngster an abused, neglected and endangered child – which were among 17 charges filed against Coleman by detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and Secaucus police following a joint operation.
Coleman, who authorities said slung cocaine, heroin and oxy in Atlantic Street Park right around the corner from the Woolworth, allegedly refused to get out of the car during a targeted Dec. 23 traffic stop.
Detectives ended up taking him into custody and searching the vehicle, along with Coleman's top-floor apartment, a complaint on file in Superior Court in Hackensack says.
All told, authorities said, they seized more than a half-ounce each of cocaine and heroin, as well as 55 oxycodone pills, $11,584 in proceeds and a defaced .38-caliber Taurus revolver.
They also collected sternos, cutting agents, razor blades, spoons and a measuring cup -- all with drug residue on them -- as well as "other material used to prepare, make and store" drugs, it says.
Coleman apparently also had a thing for bling.
The list of items seized also included “multiple items of jewelry [that] are reasonably believed to be derived directly from criminal activity,” the complaint against him alleges.
Coleman, who previously lived in Teaneck and once served prison time for a gun conviction, has continued to get into trouble in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania for more than 15 years.
As far back as 2007, he was busted for selling drugs at a public housing complex in Englewood, records show.
Nearly two dozen arrests reportedly followed -- for both possession and distribution of heroin and cocaine, as well for several instances of driving while on the suspended list (including getting caught for it twice in barely a year).
Drug charges, parole violations and other offenses followed in a steady stream.
Coleman ended up spending six weeks in the Bergen County Jail following convictions for driving while suspended in Dumont, Hackensack and Teaneck in 2011, records show.
Then came another three months in the county lockup for selling drugs on school property in 2012.
Coleman tried drug court, but he only kept violating the terms, record show.
At one point he spent August through October of 2013 in the BCJ for a drug court violation.
His business only got bigger, authorities charged. Coleman was busted for manufacturing and distributing drugs in late 2013, once more in 2016 and again in 2017, with drug court hearings in-between.
That last time, Coleman spent nine months in jail. Authorities said he emerged violent, as evidenced by an assault by auto charge in 2019.
This past August, police in New Milford arrested Coleman on a fugitive-from-justice warrant out of Chester County, PA.
Coleman previously had been charged in Cumberland County, PA with using a fake ID to secure financing for a new motorcycle. Police in that case were waiting when he pulled up to a Yamaha dealership in a U-Haul van to collect the bike. Coleman tried to flee but was quickly captured, authorities said at the time.
The detectives who nabbed Coleman last week charged him with, among other counts, maintaining a drug production facility, selling heroin, cocaine and prescription drugs, money laundering, the child endangerment count and various weapons offenses, including being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.
He remained held Friday, Dec. 30, in the Bergen County Jail after a judge refused to grant his release.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Elizabeth and receive free news updates.
