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TRENTON
– Attorney General Anne Milgram and
Criminal Justice Director Deborah L. Gramiccioni
announced that a Trenton man pleaded guilty
today to a first-degree heroin possession
charge as a result of a multi-agency investigation
of the Sex Money Murder set of the Bloods
street gang.
Oliver
Harris, 26, of Trenton, pleaded guilty to
first-degree possession of heroin with intent
to distribute before Superior Court Judge
Thomas Kelly in Mercer County. Under the
plea agreement, he faces a sentence of 10
years in state prison, with five years of
parole ineligibility.
In
pleading guilty, Harris admitted that he
was transporting more than five ounces of
heroin from Newark to Trenton for distribution
in August 2006 when State Police arrested
him at a rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike
in Woodbridge and seized the drugs from
the vehicle in which he was traveling.
Judge
Kelly scheduled Harris’ sentencing
for Feb. 27.
Supervising
Deputy Attorney General Mark Eliades, Chief
of the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs
& Organized Crime Bureau, handled today’s
hearing. The defendant was indicted in September
2007 along with 22 other individuals, including
the two alleged leaders of Sex Money Murder
in Mercer County and the alleged leader
in Monmouth and Ocean counties.
The
Mercer County leaders, Antonio Merritt,
28, and Bobby Williams, 28, both of Trenton,
previously pleaded guilty to first-degree
racketeering. When they are sentenced in
December, Merritt will face a sentence of
12 to 15 years in prison, and Williams,
a sentence of 12 years.
The
indictment stemmed from a cooperative investigation
by the New Jersey State Police, Division
of Criminal Justice, U.S. Attorney’s
Office, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration,
FBI, Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office,
Mercer County Sheriff’s Office, Monmouth
County Prosecutor’s Office, Ocean
County Prosecutor’s Office, Asbury
Park Police Department, Dover Township Police
Department, Ewing Police Department, Freehold
Borough Police Department, Jackson Township
Police Department, Lakewood Police Department,
Long Branch Police Department and Trenton
Police Department.
A
second indictment obtained in September
2007 charged 11 more gang members in North
Jersey, including all members of the three-person
state leadership committee of Sex Money
Murder.
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