SOMERVILLE A Manville man has been charged with selling cocaine less than 500 feet from the Manville Public Library.
The Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office announced on Dec. 2 that Mark Daughtry, 34, of North Second Avenue was arrested Dec. 1 after an investigation involving county prosecutor’s detectives, with assistance from the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office and Manville police.
Somerset Prosecutor Geoffrey D. Soriano said in a statement that Mr. Daughtry had met on Nov. 3 with an undercover detective in the area of Camplain Road and Seminick Lane in Manville, where the detective was sold under a half ounce of cocaine. The transaction took place within 500 feet of the Manville Public Library, the statement said.
On Nov. 18, the undercover detective met again with Mr. Daughtry, the statement said, and negotiated another narcotics sale. The two met in Bound Brook where more cocaine was sold to the undercover detective, the statement said.
Members of the prosecutor’s office Organized Crime and Narcotics Task Force, along with Manville police detectives and uniformed officers went to Mr. Daughtry’s North Second Avenue residence and arrested the suspect. The officers also executed a search warrant and found drug paraphernalia and a MDMA pill, commonly know as ecstasy.
Mr. Daughtry was charged with distribution of a controlled dangerous substance within 500 feet of a public library in the second degree, two counts of distribution of a controlled dangerous substance in the third degree, possession of a controlled dangerous substance in the third degree and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Mr. Daughtry was lodged in the Somerset County Jail with bail set by the Superior Court Judge Edward M. Coleman at $50,000.
