Law enforcement officials from Ocean and Essex counties arrested four individuals who were allegedly involved in a drug trafficking and drug production ring. Clockwise from top left are Manuel Valentin, Eslin Santos, Idia Torres and Alicia Ruddy. The arrest of four Essex County residents allegedly linked to the trafficking and production of narcotics that were sold in Ocean County is being touted by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office as a public display of its ongoing efforts to quell an outbreak in drug-related deaths.
“Drug dealers importing their deadly product from jurisdictions outside of our county are targeting residents for profit,” Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato said in a press release. “These arrests highlight the tremendous drug interdiction capabilities of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Special Operations Group.”
The arrests were made as the result of sting operations that were conducted on Jan. 29 in Berkeley Township and in Newark.
“With the help of state police, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and the Newark Police Department, the investigation worked out very well for us,” said Al Della Fave, a spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.
According to the prosecutor’s office, the first arrest took place just after 4 p.m. on Route 9 near Sylvan Lakes Boulevard in Berkeley Township when detectives executed a search warrant on a 2009 Nissan Rogue and its occupants, Eslin Santos, 27, of Newark, and Manuel Valentin, 25, of Kearny.
The prosecutor’s office estimated that about 2,000 individual dosage units of a controlled dangerous substance believed to be heroin were located in the vehicle. Santos and Valentin were apprehended and the vehicle was impounded.
Santos was charged with two counts of possession with intent to distribute heroin and maintaining a controlled dangerous substance production facility. Bail for Santos was set at $300,000, cash only.
Valentin was charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute heroin and possession of heroin. Bail for Valentin was set at $150,000 with no 10 percent option.
Just after 5 p.m., members of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Special Operations Group, the New Jersey State Police Street Gang North Unit, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office Narcotics Task Force and the Newark Police Department Emergency Response Team executed a search warrant on 190 Emmet St., Newark.
As a result of that search, law enforcement officers found 800 individual dosage units of a controlled dangerous substance believed to be heroin. Items commonly used for the manufacture, production and sale of heroin, including mixers, unused wax folds, sifters, scales, stamps and electric grinders, were also found at that location, according to authorities.
A total of $9,500 in alleged drug proceeds was seized from the building.
Idia Z. Torres, 36, and Alicia A. Ruddy, 23, both of Newark, were apprehended at the Emmet Street location following the search.
Torres was charged with possession of a controlled dangerous substance believed to be marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. She was released with a summons pending a future court date.
Ruddy was charged with possession with intent to distribute heroin under onehalf ounce, possession of heroin and possession of drug paraphernalia. She was released with a summons pending a future court date.
More than 100 deaths were attributed to drug overdoses in Ocean County in 2013, according to law enforcement officials.
Della Fave said a proactive effort to keep drugs out of the county is of paramount importance to the prosecutor’s office.
“[Ocean County] is a receiving county. We get our narcotics from the south, from Camden and Philadelphia, and from the north, from Newark and Paterson. If we are going to defend our borders and keep those people who want to prey on our population [from doing so], this is the only thing we can do,” he said.