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Oscar Holguin, 42, had two pounds of marijuana in his car when Narcotic Task Force detectives searched it – and arrested him – earlier this week, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said.
A search of his apartment at The Sheffield just off eastbound Route 4 turned up packaging materials, a bogus driver’s license and $58,880, all of which was seized, Musella said.
Holguin was “distributing marijuana and laundering the proceeds through Bergen County,” the prosecutor said.
Authorities charged him with possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute it, money laundering and possessing fraudulent government documents, he said.
Holguin was released pending a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack, Musella said.
Four years ago, detectives arrested Holguin just off the New Jersey Turnpike in Carteret, where they said his girlfriend and a local barmaid helped him ship thousands of pounds of pot from the West Coast to Yonkers and elsewhere via FedEx.
Posing as a music promoter, Holguin made weekly trips to an area north of San Francisco known for the production of marijuana in outdoor grow facilities, authorities said at the time.
After buying large quantities at wholesale prices there, Holguin had it broken down into smaller, tightly sealed packages that he stashed in subwoofers shipped to various locations in Bergen County, in Carteret and in Yonkers, they said.
An investigation dubbed “Operation Loud Speaker” led to the identification of Holguin as the “ringleader of a nationwide drug-trafficking network” and the seizure of nearly 100 pounds of raw marijuana secreted in speakers at several locations in New York and New Jersey.
Detectives also froze Holguin’s bank accounts and confiscated a Range Rover and Dodge Durango considered to be proceeds of his activities.
Holguin took a plea deal in exchange for a mandatory maximum prison sentence of seven years with no mandatory minimum rather than risk a trial, records show.
He was admitted to South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton (Cumberland County) in August 2019, then was ordered released by a judge in December of that year, according to state Department of Corrections records.
Then came news of his arrest on Monday, March 21.
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