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Law enforcement officers from various agencies followed ex-con Daevon Bell, 26, of Hamilton Township from Trenton to an apartment complex in Morrisville, PA, on Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
Bell retrieved a bag from his trunk and went into one of the apartments there, then emerged carrying another bag, Carpenito said.
When members of the law enforcement posse approached him, Bell hit the gas – clipping a DEA agent and hitting an occupied police vehicle – then tossed the bag as he sped off, the U.S. attorney said.
A high-speed pursuit ended with Bell’s capture in Lawrenceville, Carpenito said.
Agents recovered the bag and found 150 bricks of heroin inside, he said.
Bell was scheduled for a first appearance via videoconference Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Trenton on drug charges.
Carpenito credited special agents of the DEA in Newark and Philadelphia with the investigation leading to the arrest.
He also thanked the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office and the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office.
The investigation is part of the Violent Crime Initiative (VCI) in Mercer Countyh, through which the U.S. Attorney’s Office has partnered with state, federal, county, and local law enforcement to investigate violent crime in Newark and surrounding cities, Carpenito said.
Participants include his office, the FBI, the ATF, the DEA New Jersey Division, U.S. Marshals, the Trenton Police Department and the N.J. State Police Regional Operations and Intelligence Center/Real Time Crime Center, the U.S. attorney said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle S. Gasparian of Carpenito’s Criminal Division in Trenton is handling the case.
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