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TRENTON
– Attorney General Anne Milgram and
Criminal Justice Director Deborah L. Gramiccioni
announced that a leader of the violent Sex
Money Murder set of the Bloods street gang
in Mercer County was sentenced to state
prison today.
Antonio
Merritt, 29, of Trenton, was sentenced to
13 years in state prison by Superior Court
Judge Thomas P. Kelly in Mercer County.
Merritt pleaded guilty to first-degree racketeering
on Sept. 8.
In
pleading guilty, Merritt admitted that he
was a member of Sex Money Murder who supervised
other gang members in the distribution of
narcotics throughout New Jersey. A joint
investigation spearheaded by the Division
of Criminal Justice and the New Jersey State
Police determined that Merritt was one of
the two leaders of Sex Money Murder in Mercer
County.
The
other leader of the Bloods set in Mercer
County, Bobby Williams, 24, of Trenton,
was sentenced to 12 years in prison by Judge
Kelly on Dec. 5. Williams was also ordered
to forfeit his rights to $80,000 that was
seized as proceeds of illegal activity.
The sentence was pursuant to Williams’
May 23 guilty plea to first-degree racketeering.
Today’s
sentencing was handled by Supervising Deputy
Attorney General Mark Eliades, chief of
the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs &
Organized Crime Bureau.
Merritt
and Williams were indicted in September
2007 along with 21 other individuals, including
the alleged leader of the gang in Monmouth
and Ocean counties.
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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