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Ricardo Clavijo, 40, and his brother, Christopher Gonzalez of Pleasantville, were arrested last summer when nearly 24 pounds of cocaine, 12 pounds of fentanyl and 9½ pounds of heroin were found in Calvijo's basement during a DEA-led raid of his Egg Harbor Township home.
Members of the strike force also seized a .45-caliber handgun, a loaded magazine for the weapon, a 9mm 50-round drum magazine and $8,457 in cash, as well as drug packaging materials and a money-counting machine, during the July 12, 2021 raid, federal authorities said.
"Some of the heroin was already packaged in [30.000] individual doses ready for street-level distribution," U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
A few weeks earlier, investigators watched Gonzalez drive a box truck to the home, load it with empty drug packages and discard them at a municipal dump along with used cellphones -- some of which were in their original boxes with the phone numbers scrawled on them.
Rather than risk a trial, Clavigo took a deal from the government, pleading guilty to major drug charges in federal court in Camden in exchange for leniency, the U.S. attorney said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew B. Johns of Sellinger's Criminal Division in Camden secured the plea. U.S. District Judge Renée Marie Bumb scheduled sentencing for Sept. 7.
Charges of conspiring to distribute and possess heroin were still pending against Gonzalez.
Assisting the DEA's Atlantic County HIDTA Task Force were members of the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office Gangs, Guns & Narcotics Unit and the Atlantic County SWAT team, along with Egg Harbor and Linwood police.
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