Three Princeton men have been charged with drug offenses after police raided their Red Oak Row homes July 25, following a month-long investigation conducted by the Princeton Police Department and the Mercer County Narcotics Task Force.
Oleksandr Linnyk, 26, and brothers Guillermo Velez, 19, and Andres Velez, 22, were charged in connection with a marijuana and acid (LSD) distribution network allegedly run by Linnyk, Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri said.
Detectives made several undercover purchases of marijuana and acid from Linnyk, and marijuana from the Velez brothers, Onofri said. The “buys” led police to obtain and execute several search warrants for their Red Oak Row homes.
The search warrants were carried out July 25 by detectives from the Princeton, Hamilton and Trenton police departments, and the Mercer County Sheriff’s SWAT team, under the command of the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office’s Special Investigation Unit.
Linnyk was stopped by police in Princeton. When a search warrant was carried out on him, police found him to be in possession of seven tablets believed to be acid. He was taken into custody.
Andres Velez was arrested at a liquor store in Princeton and Guillermo Velez was arrested at the brothers’ Red Oak Row home.
When police carried out search warrants at the Red Oak Row houses, they found 25 grams of a substance believed to be marijuana, $791 in cash and drug paraphernalia at the Velez brothers’ home.
Police found about 10 grams of a substance believed to be marijuana, two acid tabs, three Xanax pills, one Suboxone pill and 10 grams of 2-CP, which is a synthetic hallucinogenic drug, at Linnyk’s Red Oak Row home. The drugs had a combined street value of $880.
The prosecutor’s office filed a motion to detain Linnyk, but the Velez brothers were charged and released, pending a future court date.