'Crusade' Continues: 16,000 Heroin Bags Seized, $25,400 Confiscated In Paterson Raid

Paterson narcotics detectives seized a whopping 16,000 individually packaged folds of heroin – along with $25,400 in suspected drug cash -- during on ongoing series of raids, this time in what’s considered a quiet area of the city near Bunker Hill.

A tipster led detectivto the second-floor apartment in the tidy two-family home on East 18th Street, where city Police Director Jerry Speziale said drugs were distributed to other dealers through the city – delivered in an older-model Buick Lacrosse.
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Jerry DeMarco

02/21/2019 9:37 a.m.

A tipster led them to the second-floor apartment in the tidy two-family home on East 18th Street, where city Police Director Jerry Speziale said drugs were distributed to other dealers through the city – delivered in an older-model Buick Lacrosse.

The detectives stopped the Buick on Wednesday, then raided the home around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Speziale said.

In addition to the 15,902 heroin folds, the director said, they seized 11 bags of crack and nearly a pound of pot, along with drug paraphernalia.

They arrested four people who live there – Jonathan Guerrero, 21; Tyra Lopez, 20; Delores Diaz, 56 and Germon Cabrera, 32 – along with 22-year-old Alan Valdez of East 28th Street, he said.

All were charged with various drug counts and sent to the Passaic County Jail pending detention hearings.

“I am proud of our police department’s persistence in this crusade,” Mayor Andre Sayegh said.

“This is a major blow to the distribution cells operating within the City of Paterson and whose tentacles extend throughout all of Northern New Jersey,” Speziale added.

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