49°
Brown, 38, had been a local teenage boxing phenom from the South Ward who became a Golden Glove champion 20 years ago.
According to his online bio, the Weequahic High School graduate worked for 14 years as a custodian with the Newark Board of Education before launching his own record label, 100 Percent Pure Ent, in 2018.
Two years later Brown opened the Exclusive Notes studio in Fort Lee, attracting the likes of legendary Dipset member Jim Jones, Treach from Naughty by Nature and others.
He also claimed to have recruited TikTok favorite Bandman Rill before signing Newark music producer MC ("Just Wanna Rock") Vertt and then Jay Hood, the creator of the New Jersey Club Sound.
It wasn't long before Brown was also rubbing elbows with Newark battle rapper Tsu Surf and infamous New York Blood gang rapper Cassanova 2x -- only this time it was behind bars.
Surf, who authorities described as a leader of the violent Rollin’ 60s Neighborhood Crips Newark street gang, got five years in federal prison this past December after pleading guilty to conspiracy charges.
SEE: Newark Rapper Tsu Surf Gets 5 Years, No Parole, For Leadership Role In Armed, Violent Drug Gang
Now it's Brown's turn.
He was dealing serious weight, the FBI said.
Agents seized two kilos of heroin, half of it mixed with fentanyl, and fentanyl itself, during simultaneous June 2021 raids at Brown's Cliffside Park home and a stashhouse apartment he kept in Harrison, federal authorities said.
Some of the roughly 4½ pounds was still in raw form, according to an FBI complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Newark.
Most, however, was bagged into 122 "bricks" packaged for sale -- basically, 6,100 folds, or 50 folds per brick tied in "bundles" of 10, the complaint says.
Also seized, it says, was $169,000 in cash -- $44,000 of which was reportedly contained in a safe with drugs.
There were also various diamond necklaces, gold watches and a gold ring, as well as five cell phones and safety deposit keys, the complaint says.
Agents also reported finding a ledger, a safe, scales, a grinder, ink pads, stamps, zip locking bags, a vacuum sealer, razor blades and glassine folds.
Brown, who already had a criminal record, chose not to risk the potential consequences of a guilty verdict from a federal jury. He took a deal from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark instead, admitting last month to conspiring to sling drugs.
Brown also agreed to forfeit $436,616 in proceeds as part of the agreement, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
Sellinger hasn't given any indication of how much federal prison time the government is seeking. The minimum in this case under federal sentencing guidelines is five years.
U.S. District Court Judge Brian R. Martinotti scheduled sentencing for June 12.
Sellinger credited special agents of the FBI, as well as members of the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and Harrison and Cliffside Park police departments for the investigation leading to the plea, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert L. Frazer of his Organized Crime/Gangs Unit and Assistant U.S. Attorney Dong Joo Lee of his Narcotics/Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force Unit in Newark.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Jersey City and receive free news updates.
