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Noel "Kuko" Salgado, 41, was serving time when he had associates on the outside sneak the drugs into Bayside State Prison in Leesburg (Cumberland County), federal authorities said.
One inmate who used the smuggled drugs suffered an overdose and was revived with Narcan after remaining senseless for nearly 20 minutes before having to be hospitalized, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
Salgado -- who headed the "Loyal Hoody Gang," a local set of the nationwide Neighborhood Rolling 20 Bloods -- took his chances with a jury rather than take a plea deal from the government.
He ended up being convicted after a four-day trial in U.S. District Court in Newark last October of conspiring to distribute heroin and fentanyl and was sentenced to 264 months.
There's no parole in the federal prison system, which means Salgado must serve just about all of the sentence. He'll be close to 65 years old when he's finally released.
In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge William J. Martini sentenced Salgado to three years of supervised release.
An accomplice, Jasmir Humphrey of Jersey City, previously was sentenced to more than 11 years for her role in sneaking the drugs into the prison from the outside. She, too, must serve out the entire term.
Sellinger credited special agents of the FBI and investigators with the New Jersey Department of Corrections with the investigation leading to Salgado's conviction and sentencing, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher D. Amore and Elaine K. Lou of his office in Newark.
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