State targets gang

by Sean Ruppert, Staff Writer
   A Monmouth Junction man was charged Wednesday with dealing heroin and ecstasy following a state police investigation of the Bloods street gang.
   Tamir Styles, 31, of 106 Northumberland Way, was charged with 12 other alleged members of Bounty Hunters, a sect of the Bloods gang, according to a press release.
   The men were arrested as part of a sting dubbed Operation Fire Extinguisher, aimed at disrupting gun and drug distribution by the gang in the Burlington, New Brunswick and Franklin areas.
   ”The Bounty Hunters are a particularly violent set of the Bloods street gang, and the targeted defendants were involved in both drug and gun trafficking,” State Attorney General Anne Milgram said in a release.
   The first arrest was made Aug. 16 when gang leader Ronald “Bang Boy” Kinston, 30, of Burlington City, was charged with receiving a shipment of handguns from North Carolina.
   Police said Mr. Kinston was receiving guns from Torrey Grady, 25, of Leeland, N.C., according to the release. Police said they found four semi-automatic handguns hidden in a 2002 Acura driven by Mr. Grady.
   A search warrant executed at Mr. Kinston’s residence found heroin, distribution paraphernalia, cash and hollow-point ammunition. Mr. Kinston, who had been wearing a locator bracelet as a condition of parole on a different offense, was charged with racketeering, conspiracy to distribute cocaine and heroin, possession of heroin with intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of a school, conspiracy to traffic weapons and possession of prohibited ammo.
   The investigation followed the distribution network for the drugs and guns, and eventually led to the searches of several residences on Wednesday, including Mr. Styles, who was charged with conspiracy to distribute heroin and ecstasy.
   Police found six handguns, $30,000 of uncut heroin, 3 ounces of cocaine, 550 ecstasy pills and $23,000 in cash in the residences searched.
   All of those arrested were taken to Middlesex County Adult Correction Center.
   ”With these arrests we have stopped a significant source of guns to gang members,” Maj. William Toms of the state police Intelligence Section said in a release. “Gangs dealing drugs and guns are dealing death in our state.”