TRENTON
– Attorney General Paula T. Dow and
Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor
announced that 22 alleged members and associates
of the violent Nine Trey Hillside Beehive
set of the Bloods street gang, including
its two top leaders, were indicted on charges
including first-degree gang criminality
as a result of a joint investigation targeting
the Paterson-based set.
The
36-count indictment, returned late yesterday,
stems from Operation Swarm, an investigation
by the New Jersey State Police, Division
of Criminal Justice, Department of Corrections’
Special Investigations Division, Paterson
Police Department, Passaic County Prosecutor’s
Office and Passaic County Sheriff’s
Department. The gang activities of this
Bloods set extended through Passaic, Essex,
Monmouth and Cumberland counties, but its
primary area of operations was Paterson.
In addition to alleged murder conspiracies
and distribution of heroin, cocaine and
marijuana, the investigation uncovered smuggling
of drugs and cell phones into the state
prisons.
“This
is the first time that the Attorney General’s
Office has obtained an indictment under
New Jersey’s new anti-gang laws,”
said Attorney General Dow. “The charges
of gang criminality and promoting organized
street crime are specifically geared to
prosecuting the criminal activities of gangs
and their leaders, and each charge carries
a sentence of 15 to 30 years in state prison.
We have taken down the leadership of this
violent set of the Bloods street gang, and
our aim in prosecuting the defendants is
to see that the punishment fits their crimes.”
According
to Director Taylor, the set’s founder
and leader, or “Godfather,”
Clarence Scott, 35, allegedly ran the gang
from New Jersey State Prison in Trenton,
where he is serving a life sentence, 35
years without possibility of parole, on
a 2002 conviction for murder. Scott allegedly
made Asmar Bease, 29, of Paterson, “Godfather”
for the street, second in rank only to Scott.
As Scott’s top man outside the prison
system, Bease allegedly utilized violence
and intimidation to control the gang’s
drug-dealing turf on 17th Avenue between
East 27th and East 29th Streets in Paterson.
Another defendant, Aimee Harker, 34, of
Vineland, allegedly served as the primary
conduit to facilitate three-way calls between
Scott and other gang members, both inside
and outside the prison system.
Scott,
Bease and all 20 other defendants named
in the indictment are charged under the
state’s new criminal code provisions
with first-degree gang criminality. They
include Brian Teel, a former corrections
officer in New Jersey State Prison in Trenton,
who is charged with taking $500 in payment
to smuggle a cell phone into prison for
Scott.
Scott,
Bease and three others are charged with
the new first-degree offense of promoting
organized street crime for allegedly organizing,
supervising or financing the gang’s
criminal activities. The others charged
with that offense are Bease’s alleged
second in command on the street, Corey Cauthen,
29, of Paterson; Lewis Alford, 33, of Keansburg,
who allegedly oversaw gang operations in
Monmouth and Ocean counties; and Isaac Porter,
38, of Paterson.
“New
Jersey’s anti-gang laws provide police
and prosecutors with new weapons in their
fight against criminal street gangs,”
said Criminal Justice Director Taylor. “We
will use every weapon in our arsenal to
combat the violent gangs that have been
terrorizing our residents and degrading
the quality of life in our neighborhoods.”
The
investigation was led by Detective Mark
Finnegan of the New Jersey State Police
Street Gang North Unit; Deputy Attorney
General Christopher Romanyshyn of the Division
of Criminal Justice Gangs & Organized
Crime Bureau; Investigator Raphael Dolce
and Principal Investigator Vincent Wojciechowicz
of the Department of Corrections Special
Investigations Division; and Detective Sgt.
Dalton Price of the Paterson Police Department
Gang Intelligence Unit. Attorney General
Dow also credited the Passaic County Prosecutor’s
Office and the Passaic County Sheriff’s
Department for their valuable assistance
throughout the investigation. She thanked
all of the individuals who worked on the
investigation for the participating agencies.
Deputy
Attorney General Romanyshyn presented the
case to the state grand jury.
Several
defendants are charged with murder or conspiracy
to commit murder. Cauthen is charged with
murder in the death of Daniel Ragonese.
Ragonese was shot in his car on East 28th
Street in Paterson on Jan. 12, 2008 and
drove a short distance before crashing into
a tree.
In
addition, Scott and Bease are charged with
conspiracy to commit murder for allegedly
plotting to kill another defendant, Oshun
Black, 34, of Paterson. The alleged plot
was thwarted as a result of the investigation.
And four other defendants, Bryan Thomas,
21, Lamont Williams, 21, Keith Brinkley,
19, and Kosmick Leary, 20, all of Paterson,
are charged with conspiracy to commit murder
for another alleged murder plot thwarted
by investigators in January 2009.
Isaac
Porter, who was an inmate at Northern State
Prison in Newark, is charged with using
female associates outside the prison to
procure drugs and cell phones and smuggle
them into the prisons during contact visits.
His former cell mate in Northern State Prison,
David Clay, 35, who is now in Bayside State
Prison, is also charged in that scheme.
The prison smuggling allegedly was carried
out under the supervision of Scott and Bease.
Three
women, Tyla Chance, 38, of Paterson, Kisha
Ruff, 40, of Newark, and Natasha Peyton,
31, of Paterson, are charged with arranging
three-way calls for Porter with gang members
and obtaining drugs to be smuggled into
prison by themselves or others. A girlfriend
of Clay, Cynthia Gainey, 38, of Paterson,
is charged with attempting to smuggle marijuana
to him.
Porter
is charged with leading a narcotics trafficking
network, a first-degree offense. Bease and
Cauthen are also charged with that crime,
which carries a sentence of 25 years to
life in prison.
Terry
Young, a girlfriend of Scott’s, is
charged with purchasing a cell phone to
be smuggled to him in prison, and shipping
the phone to Teel along with a $500 U.S.
Postal Service money order as a bribe for
smuggling it.
As
a result of arrests made during the investigation
and a search warrant executed at 227 17th
Avenue in Paterson on Aug. 13, 2008 detectives
seized 6,850 decks of heroin worth approximately
$48,000, 50 ten-dollar bags of crack cocaine,
and six small bags of marijuana.
The
first-floor apartment at 227 17th Avenue
was used by the gang as a headquarters and
a base for distributing narcotics. The tenant
of that apartment in Paterson, Roshiema
James, 37, and most of the other defendants
are charged with narcotics offenses. Certain
defendants are charged with weapons offenses.
Several defendants, including Bease and
Cauthen, are charged with tampering with
evidence or witnesses and/or hindering apprehension
or prosecution in connection with the murder
of Daniel Ragonese.
The
indictment is merely an accusation and the
defendants are presumed innocent until proven
guilty. The indictment was returned yesterday
afternoon and handed up to Superior Court
Judge Linda R. Feinberg in Mercer County.
A copy of the indictment is posted with
this release at www.njpublicsafety.com.
The
following additional defendants were charged:
-
Kelvin Wells, 21, of Paterson;
-
Kahseem Allah-Shabazz, 32, of Paterson;
and
-
Qhasheema Frye, 20, of Paterson
After
the indictment was returned, warrants were
issued for three defendants, Porter, Alford
and Wells, who were arrested last night.
Porter and Wells were arrested in Paterson,
and Alford was arrested in Long Branch.
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