TRENTON
– Attorney General Zulima V. Farber
and Criminal Justice Director Gregory A.
Paw announced that the Division of Criminal
Justice and Mercer County Prosecutor’s
Office have obtained a lengthy state prison
sentence for a leading member of a violent
heroin trafficking cartel with ties to the
Bloods street gang that operated out of
Mercer and Essex counties.
Superior
Court Judge Maryann K. Bielamowicz of Mercer
County sentenced Akeem Blue, 22, of Trenton,
to 17 years in state prison with eight years
of parole ineligibility.
Blue,
an alleged wholesaler for the heroin cartel,
pleaded guilty on April 14 to a charge of
possession of heroin with intent to distribute
filed by the Division of Criminal Justice.
Judge Bielamowicz sentenced Blue to 10 years
in state prison on that charge, with 43
months of parole ineligibility. Blue also
was sentenced today on charges filed by
the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office,
which brought his aggregate sentence to
17 years in state prison.
Blue
was arrested on June 25, 2004 in the parking
lot of a Trenton convenience store as he
paid Robert Cashwell, 34, of Elizabeth,
roughly $43,000 in cash in exchange for
179 bricks of heroin, containing 8,950 “decks”
of heroin, or about 500 grams. Cashwell,
an alleged leader in the drug network, pleaded
guilty on March 3 to a charge of first-degree
distribution of heroin filed by the Division
of Criminal Justice. He faces a potential
10 years in state prison with 42 months
of parole ineligibility when he is sentenced.
The
arrests of Cashwell and Blue kicked off
an early morning round-up of cartel members
which resulted from an investigation dubbed
“Operation Golden Triangle,”
coordinated by the Division of Criminal
Justice with the assistance of the Trenton
Police Department and the Mercer County
Prosecutor’s Office.
Operation
Golden Triangle targeted the leaders of
the drug cartel, along with middle managers
and street-level dealers selling heroin
and other illegal narcotics throughout the
City of Trenton, surrounding Mercer County
area and Essex County. At the time, the
cartel allegedly controlled some 75 percent
of the heroin trade in Trenton as well as
a substantial portion of the statewide heroin
trafficking market.
The
arrests of Cashwell and Blue on June 25,
2004 set in motion the simultaneous execution
of additional arrest and search warrants
in Trenton, Newark, Irvington, East Orange,
Elizabeth and Philadelphia. Ultimately,
authorities seized a total of 300 bricks
of heroin, a dozen illegal guns, an apartment
building in East Orange, a Maserati and
more than $400,000 in cash and bank assets,
among other things.
The
Division of Criminal Justice also charged
the alleged kingpin of the drug network,
Charles Hamilton, aka “Black,”
36, of Irvington, with numerous offenses
including leading a narcotics trafficking
network, criminal conspiracy, racketeering
and distribution of heroin. Those charges
are pending.
It
is alleged that the drug cartel obtained
large quantities of street-packaged heroin
in the form of bricks from sources in northern
New Jersey. The heroin would be processed
from bricks into doses for street-level
distribution in the Trenton area. It is
estimated that some 20,000 doses were distributed
on the streets of Trenton in any given week.
Deputy
Attorney General Frank Gennaro represented
the Division of Criminal Justice - Major
Narcotics Bureau at today’s sentencings.
Operation
Golden Triangle received major support and
manpower resources from the Trenton Police
Department, Mercer County Prosecutor’s
Office, the New Jersey Air National Guard,
the Pennsylvania State Police and the Alabama
Air National Guard. Additional investigative
support was provided by the Mercer County
Sheriff’s Office, Essex County Sheriff’s
Office, Union County Prosecutor’s
Office, Essex County Prosecutor’s
Office, Monmouth County Prosecutor’s
Office, Middlesex County Prosecutor’s
Office, Hudson County Prosecutor’s
Office, New Jersey State Police T.E.A.M.S.
Unit, Ewing Police Department, the New Jersey
Division of Taxation and the Division of
Criminal Justice High Entry Risk Team, the
Financial Crimes Bureau, and the Civil Remedies
and Forfeiture Unit.
Deputy
Attorneys General Dianne DiGiamber Deal
and Andrew Butchko and Supervising Deputy
Attorney General John Corson from the Division
of Criminal Justice - Major Narcotics Bureau
prepared search and arrest warrants and
presented cases to the state grand jury
in connection with Operation Golden Triangle.
State Investigator Brian G. Kiely from the
Division of Criminal Justice - Major Narcotics
Bureau, coordinated the investigation.
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