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The leaders, members and associates of the 42-50 subset of the Crips were slinging heroin connected to eight overdose deaths and 14 nonfatal ODs at open-air drug markets where shootings were common, state Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck said.
The indictment returned Wednesday in Trenton names 15 defendants, including reputed ringleader Marvin Goodman, 30, who was wounded in a drive-by shooting last summer, and his second-in-command, Terike Gass, 41, Bruck said.
Goodman and Gass are charged with first-degree promoting organized street crime. They and the others are charged with conspiring to sell narcotics, among other drug-related counts.
Rival gangs often targeted the 42-50 set, whose name is taken from the address of an Auburn Street building at the corner of Godwin Avenue where they operated, the attorney general said.
Gunfire between rival gangs was escalating last fall when city and state detectives raided a heroin mill in the first block of North York Street where the subset cut and packaged heroin for sale, as well as a crack cocaine operation in an apartment in the 300 block of Summer Street, Bruck said.
Overall, the detectives seized more than 21,000 single-dose wax folds of heroin – some of which also contained fentanyl – along with more than a kilo of crack and $110,000 in drug cash during what became known as "Operation 42-50," Bruck said.
The investigation included undercover buys of 10 bricks of heroin, each of which holds 50 folds, the attorney general said, adding that the subset was “believed to have been distributing approximately 50,000 doses of heroin and a kilo of crack cocaine per week.”
The heroin that ended up killing some of its users had names stamped on folds including "Pop Smoke," "Killer Bees" and "Frosted Flakes," he said.
A 42-50 member was struck and wounded by gunfire in a shooting at Godwin and Auburn on Oct. 14, a day before arrests began. Some of those nabbed in the second bust began throwing crack and drug paraphernalia out the window as police arrived, authorities said.
All but one of those charged with various drug counts are from Paterson, including Goodman and Gass:
- Arikia Goodwin, 33;
- Andre Anderson, 37;
- Jerome Blair, 39;
- Javon Cook, 29;
- Steven Godbolt, 48;
- William Herrington, 40;
- Brian Johnson, 38;
- Kenneth McKinney, 22;
- Eric Pena, 29;
- Jakheem Rutter, 21;
- Andre White, 44;
- Christopher Younger, 20;
- Shomahree Brown, 37, of East Orange.
A judge ordered that Marvin Goodwin, Arikia Goodwin, Gass, Anderson and White remain jailed pending trial. The rest were released with monitoring.
“The people of Paterson deserve to live in safety, without the fear of gun violence or the dangers associated with open-air drug markets,” Bruck said.
“I want to thank Attorney General Grewal and his office for supporting the Paterson Police Department in our battle against illegal drugs, guns and violence,” said
Paterson Public Safety Director Jerry Speziale thanked Bruck and his office “for supporting the Paterson Police Department in our battle against illegal drugs, guns and violence.”
The coordination, Speziale said, has “unleashed the power of the many to bring successful investigations aimed at reducing violence and arresting the individuals responsible for creating a wave of illegal drug distribution in our city.”
Deputy Attorney General Anna E. Gildea secured the indictment for the state Division of Criminal Justice’s Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau. Detective Russell Kingsland was the lead detective in the joint investigation with the Paterson Police Narcotics Unit.
The New Jersey State Police Intelligence Section assisted in the investigation.
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