Members of the strike force hit a pair of apartments, one on Mangold Street near Belmont Avenue in Haledon and the other at the corner of Garrison and Marion streets in Paterson, Passaic County Sheriff Richard H. Berdnik said Wednesday, Sept. 27.
Detectives from the sheriff’s Bureau of Narcotics and the borough seized a 2018 Ford Fusion along with the drugs, the gun and more than $25,000 in cash following a month-long operation, Berdnik said.
All told, they collected:
- a stolen 9mm handgun loaded with 26 bullets;
- three large-capacity magazines;
- 47 vials of processed crack and a small amount of the raw drug;
- a dozen zip-locking bags of cocaine;
- 126 heroin folds;
- nearly four pounds of pot;
- 14 Xanax pills without a prescription;
- a bottle of promethazine;
- $25,278 in suspected drug-selling proceeds.
The drugs combined would fetch at least $10,000 when sold on the street, the sheriff said.
Those arrested on various drug and weapons charges:
- Joshua Sarai, 24, of Mangold Street (second floor);
- Richard Earle, 26, of Garrison Street, who Berdnik said was carrying 93 heroin folds, along with all the crack vials and raw crack seized;
- Isiah E. Griffith, also 24, a repeat offender who was arrested in Clifton after the sheriff said he sold 10 Percocet pills and four Oxycodone pills to Christian Lara, 26, of Haledon;
- Lara, who was also wanted on an outstanding warrant when he was taken into custody.
All four were jailed pending first appearances in Central Judicial Processing Court in Paterson, the sheriff said.
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