"A WAREHOUSE for DRUGS"

It began with a number of complaints from residents in the Elizabeth port section of the city. Then over a hundred residents from the area asked officials to help rid their neighborhood of the drug trafficking on the streets. Det. John Sheridan of the Elizabeth Police Department, along with the Union County Prosecutor's Office Narcotics Strike Force developed a plan of operation utilizing surveillance, informant information and undercover purchases in an attempt to attack the communities' problems.

The culmination of the investigation came on December 17th when over one hundred law enforcement officers from more than a dozen law enforcement agencies executed nine search warrants and arrested twenty eight individuals including the ringleaders of the organization. This drug distribution organization ran a drug packaging warehouse and laboratory in Newark, which conducted a multi-million dollar a year heroin and cocaine street distribution operation. The production workers at the warehouse were able to package up to twenty five hundred bags of heroin a day, which were sold in Elizabeth for seven dollars apiece. Seized pursuant to the search warrants were: eleven ounces of heroin, eighteen bricks of heroin, four ounces of cocaine, two hundred vials of cocaine, along with six weapons, which included two Tec-9 assault rifles.

The NJNEOA commends the Union County Prosecutor's Office Narcotic Strike Force, Elizabeth Police Department, Newark Police Department, Newark HIDTA Group One and the Linden Police Department for their diligent efforts and perseverance in this outstanding investigation