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Police & Fire
Fentanyl, Cocaine Dealer Busted At NJ Hotel: Prosecutor Fentanyl, Cocaine Dealer Busted At NJ Hotel: Prosecutor
Fentanyl, Cocaine Dealer Busted At NJ Hotel: Prosecutor A 35-year-old man allegedly was busted with a variety of drugs at a Somerset hotel, authorities said. Anthony L. Banks of North Brunswick was charged with numerous drug offenses, according to Franklin Township police and the Somerset County prosecutor. Prosecutor John P. McDonald said Banks' arrest was the result of a two-month investigation of drug deals allegedly taking place at a hotel on Cedar Grove Lane in Somerset. On Monday, Feb. 27, Banks was arrested by Task Force Officers as he exited the unnamed hotel without incident, McDonald said. A warranted search of Banks' hotel room yiel…

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by Jon Craig
News
CARRY THAT WEIGHT: Bergen Detectives Bust NYC Five With 1,100 Pounds Of Pot, 50 Lbs Of Edibles CARRY THAT WEIGHT: Bergen Detectives Bust NYC Five With 1,100 Pounds Of Pot, 50 Lbs Of Edibles
Carry That Weight: Bergen Detectives Bust NYC Five With 1,100 Pounds Of Pot, 50 Lbs Of Edibles More than a half-ton of pot and 50 pounds of edibles were seized by Bergen County prosecutor’s detectives who charged five jobless men from Queens with moving large drug shipments in and around Fort Lee. Narcotic Task Force members raided two storage facilities – one near the George Washington Bridge and the other in Jersey City – and conducted warranted searches of four vehicles in Fort Lee during the Valentine’s Day cannabust, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said. Arrested were: Jingru Chen, 29; Fenglei Fan, 35; Lifan Feng, 21; XingXiang Gao, 27; Weiqi Wu, 25. All five remain…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Feds: Hudsonite Nabbed Accepting Mail-Order Fentanyl From Mexico Pleads Out Feds: Hudsonite Nabbed Accepting Mail-Order Fentanyl From Mexico Pleads Out
Feds: Hudsonite Nabbed Accepting Mail-Order Fentanyl From Mexico Pleads Out A Hudson County man admitted accepting mail-order fentanyl destined for New Jersey’s streets that shipped to his home from Mexico, federal authorities said. Miguel Polanco, 31, even watched a how-to video on how to handle the shipment, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said following a plea hearing in Newark on Wednesday, Feb. 15. Polanco became the focus of an investigation after U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents intercepted the package from Mexico City on its way to his Union City apartment, Sellinger said. He had previously received a video from a conspirator “exp…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
50,000 Pills: Feds Hold Accused Fentanyl Trafficker From Mexico In Bergen Jail After NYC Bust 50,000 Pills: Feds Hold Accused Fentanyl Trafficker From Mexico In Bergen Jail After NYC Bust
50,000 Pills: Feds Hold Accused Fentanyl Trafficker From Mexico In Bergen Jail After NYC Bust Federal authorities kept an accused fentanyl trafficker in custody at the Bergen County Jail after they said they caught her selling 50,000 potentially fatal fentanyl pills in Manhattan. Agari Reyes-Sillero, a 34-year-old Mexican national, got into a cooperator’s car in with the multi-colored pills packed into four protein powder containers on Feb. 5, 2023, a complaint signed by a DEA agent alleges. She expected to be paid $400,000 in return, the complaint filed in the Southern District of New York in Manhattan says. Members of a task force comprised of DEA agents, the NYPD and the New Yo…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
New Milford Resident Among Purported Trinitarios Members Seized In Massive NYC Drug Takedown New Milford Resident Among Purported Trinitarios Members Seized In Massive NYC Drug Takedown
New Milford Resident Among Purported Trinitarios Members Seized In Massive NYC Drug Takedown A New Milford resident was one of more than a dozen purported Triniarious gang members arrested in a lightning-strike series of raids on both sides of the Hudson River, authorities confirmed. Fentanyl and an unspecified amount of illegal proceeds were seized during the New Milford raid around 6 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 25, a source close to the takedown told Daily Voice. Meanwhile, in New York City, 10 accused members of the Washington Heights faction of the Trinitarios were nabbed as part of the operation, led by members of ICE's Homeland Security Investigations New York office and including t…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
Jersey Shore Man Admits Selling Cocaine: Prosecutor Jersey Shore Man Admits Selling Cocaine: Prosecutor
Jersey Shore Man Admits Selling Cocaine: Prosecutor A 45-year-old Jersey Shore man has admitted selling a large quantify of cocaine, authorities said. Mark Kelber, of Manalapan, pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine in an amount greater than five ounces with intent to distribute, according to Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer. Kelber was arrested as part of “Operation Checkmate,” a four-month-long cooperative, multi-jurisdictional investigation conducted by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Narcotics Strike Force, United States Drug Enforcement Administration – High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (H…

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by Jon Craig
News
‘War Ready’: Armed NJ Heroin Dealer Sentenced To 19 Years Without Parole ‘War Ready’: Armed NJ Heroin Dealer Sentenced To 19 Years Without Parole
‘War Ready’: Armed NJ Heroin Dealer Sentenced To 19 Years Without Parole UPDATE: A New Jersey drug dealer who once served state prison time is headed to a federal penitentiary for a plea-bargained 19 years without parole. Jakir “Jak” Taylor, 32, was a key figure in an alliance of two violent rival gangs who once dominated the heroin trade on Trenton’s north and west side neighborhoods, authorities said. He's also the last of 26 defendants swept up in a joint law enforcement operation that smashed that operation. Taylor and conspirator Jerome Roberts collected heroin bricks by the hundreds from David “Papi” Antonio that were sold in individual bags, authorities …

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Leader Of Jersey City Drug Crew Sentenced To More Than 4 Years Without Parole Leader Of Jersey City Drug Crew Sentenced To More Than 4 Years Without Parole
Leader Of Jersey City Drug Crew Sentenced To More Than 4 Years Without Parole The leader of a crew that slung cocaine and heroin in the Greenville section of Jersey City was sentenced to more than four years in federal prison. Jerome Powell, 43, must serve just about all of the plea-bargained 51-month sentence because there's no parole in the federal prison system. He and four accused members worked in the area of Columbia Park, moving the drugs from an undisclosed stash house to a home on Bartholdi Avenue that servied buyers, according to a DEA complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Newark. Authorities built a case by recording street deals and picking off buy…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
BIG BUST: Paterson Detectives Seize Kilo Of Coke, 50 Pounds Of Pot, Six Guns, 680 Ammo Rounds, BIG BUST: Paterson Detectives Seize Kilo Of Coke, 50 Pounds Of Pot, Six Guns, 680 Ammo Rounds,
BIG Bust: Paterson Detectives Seize Kilo Of Coke, 50 Pounds Of Pot, Six Guns, 680 Ammo Rounds, Paterson detectives crashed a major drug operation in a quiet residential neighborhood, seizing a kilo of cocaine, a half-dozen illegal guns, 680 rounds of ammunition and nearly 50 pounds of pot. Jonathan Leon, 30, kept a low profile while keeping an array of firearms and a sizable amount of drugs in the modest house on Grand Street off Reservoir Street near westbound Route 80, Police Director Jerry Speziale said. Leon was assisted by Christhopher Vasquez (correct spelling), 31, the director said. Undercover detectives used informants, kept an eye on the house and eventually secured a sear…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
23,000 Fentanyl Doses, 30 Homemade Guns Seized In NJ Latin Kings Takedown: Feds 23,000 Fentanyl Doses, 30 Homemade Guns Seized In NJ Latin Kings Takedown: Feds
23,000 Fentanyl Doses, 30 Homemade Guns Seized In NJ Latin Kings Takedown: Feds More than 23,000 doses of fentanyl, nearly 30 homemade firearms and a host of parts designed to create fully-automatic machine guns were seized in the takedown of a drug and gun trafficking network run by New Jersey members of the Latin Kings, federal authorities announced. Nine reputed members of the ring were charged with a variety of drug and weapon offenses that include creating and selling private-made firearms (PMFs), more commonly known as “ghost guns," U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said. PMFs were actually being made on 3D printers at the moment law enforcers raided one of sever…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Dealer Admits Role In Major Ring That Moved Fentanyl, Meth, Coke By The Pound Into NJ From NYC Dealer Admits Role In Major Ring That Moved Fentanyl, Meth, Coke By The Pound Into NJ From NYC
Dealer Admits Role In Major Ring That Moved Fentanyl, Meth, Coke By The Pound Into NJ From NYC One of three Manhattan men accused of flooding four North Jersey counties with massive quantities of fentanyl, meth and coke admitted his role in the organization, authorities said. Juan Carlos Merced Moreno, 45, and his partners operated a fentanyl mill in Washington Heights that supplied traffickers in New Jersey with at least 25,000 pills that were distributed throughout the Garden State, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said. And that wasn't all. Authorities discovered the operation during what began as an investigation into the Hudson County crew, which flooded the str…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Feds: 200 Pounds Of Coke, Fentanyl Seized In NJ Turnpike Stop Of NY Tractor-Trailer Driver Feds: 200 Pounds Of Coke, Fentanyl Seized In NJ Turnpike Stop Of NY Tractor-Trailer Driver
Feds: 200 Pounds Of Coke, Fentanyl Seized In NJ Turnpike Stop Of NY Tractor-Trailer Driver A tractor-trailer driver from Yonkers had nearly 100 kilos of cocaine and fentanyl combined when he was stopped for driving erratically on the New Jersey Turnpike near the Meadowlands, authorities said. Members of a special federal drug task force found the nearly 225-pound shipment after stopping Alejandro Nouel Lajud, 39, on the Turnpike in East Rutherford on Monday, Dec. 5, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said. The drugs were divided into 95 brick-shaped packages each weighing a little over two pounds -- 70 of them containing cocaine and 25 holding fentanyl, Selling…

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by Jerry DeMarco