| TRENTON – Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa announced that a Camden man was sentenced to state prison today for his role in a narcotics network in South Camden with ties to the Bloods street gang that was dealing large quantities of cocaine, heroin and PCP.
Damir Lea, 22, aka “D-Money,” was sentenced to 11 years in state prison, including more than nine years of parole ineligibility under the No Early Release Act, by Superior Court Judge Samuel D. Natal in Camden. Lea pleaded guilty on June 20 to first-degree racketeering. He admitted that he distributed narcotics for the drug ring and beat up a man in the Camden County Jail because he believed the man was acting as a witness in the state’s investigation of the ring. Deputy Attorney General Jill Mayer prosecuted Lea and handled the sentencing for the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau.
“When gang members and drug dealers resort to violence against witnesses, we’re going to come down hard on them,” said Attorney General Chiesa. “This lengthy prison sentence sends a strong message that we will aggressively prosecute anyone who engages in witness intimidation.”
“We’re working with our local, county and federal law enforcement partners to zero in on the criminal enterprises and offenders who are bringing the most violence into Camden’s neighborhoods,” said Director Stephen J. Taylor of the Division of Criminal Justice. “Operation City Wide is a good example of how we’re producing results through this teamwork.”
Lea and 13 other defendants, including the alleged leader of the ring, Kyle Ogletree, 28, of Cherry Hill, a reputed five-star general in the G-Shine Bloods, were named in a Nov. 3, 2011 indictment charging them with first-degree racketeering and second-degree conspiracy. The indictment resulted from Operation City Wide, a nine-month investigation led by the Division of Criminal Justice, with assistance from the Camden Police Department, Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, New Jersey Department of Corrections, Cherry Hill Police Department, Magnolia Police Department, Pennsauken Police Department, Philadelphia Police, New Jersey State Police, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and National Guard. The charges against Ogletree and many of the other defendants are pending, and they are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The investigation was conducted for the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau by Detectives Peppi Pichette and Brian Woolston, who were the Case Detectives, and Sgt. Andrea Salvatini, Sgt. James Nelson, Lt. John Torrey, and Deputy Chief Al Buecker, who supervised the case. Deputy Attorney General Mayer is prosecuting the defendants.
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