Crime & Safety

North Ward Drug Lab 'No Mom-and-Pop Operation,' Sheriff Says

Several thousand bags of heroin seized, four arrested in raid, authorities said.

Four men were arraigned Thursday on drug and weapons charges following their arrest Tuesday by Essex County Sheriff's detectives and federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents.

Sheriff Armando Fontoura stated the arrests culminated in the seizure of 776 grams of heroin with an estimated street value in excess of $175,000 and a loaded .22 caliber handgun.

Fontoura added that the target of the investigation, Larry Leverett, 29, of Elizabeth, had been under surveillance by officers from the sheriff's Bureau of Narcotics and the federal DEA agents for nearly a month.

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"We believed Leverett to be a major drug distributor in Essex County," said Fontoura, "and when we raided his drug manufacturing plant in the Newark's North Ward we recovered three-quarters of a kilo of heroin, a wide variety of drug packaging and processing equipment and a handgun. This was no 'mom-and-pop' operation."

Detectives and federal agents allegedly observed Leverett enter the drug stash alone, located at 43 Crane St., at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.  He and his brother, Lamar, 25 also of Elizabeth, exited the basement studio apartment shortly after 10 p.m. and drove away in a 1999 Chrysler LHS.

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The vehicle was stopped at Summer and 7th avenues by task force officers and sheriff's K-9 "Yankee" detected the presence of narcotics in the vehicle's trunk, the sheriff’s office said. 

Armed with a search warrant for the basement apartment, the officers entered and discovered a glass-topped coffee table covered with 14,386 bags of heroin, stamped "CHINA DOLL" in red ink, an additional 57 grams of heroin in loose form and packaging paraphernalia, the sheriff’s office also said.

Salvador Aguilar, 38, of North Plainfield, and Marco Medina, 46, of Linden, were in the apartment at the time of the raid.  The two men jumped out a rear window but were immediately arrested by task force officers who had surrounded the building, according to the sheriff's office.

All four men were charged with numerous narcotics offenses, including maintaining a drug production facility, possession, conspiracy, as well as weapons offenses. Aguilar and Medina were also charged with resisting arrest.

The four men were being held on $500,000 bail.  


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