Twenty reputed gang members of the Bloods, ranging in age from 18-53, were arrested over the last five days following a huge cocaine and heroin operation bust by Essex law enforcement officials. Prosecutor Paula T. Dow made the announcement yesterday, adding police recovered a significant amount of illegal drugs, weapons and cash during a series of raids in Essex County.
At the time of the arrests, some of the suspects were armed with loaded semi-automatic handguns. Detectives seized more than 500 grams of cocaine and 100 grams of heroin. In addition, three loaded semi-automatic handguns, three vehicles and approximately $50,000 in cash were recovered. Seven additional targets remain at large.


Initiated in August 2008, the investigation dubbed “Operation Trifecta” traced an elaborate cocaine and heroin distribution operation that sold large quantities of drugs to gang members and associates in Newark, Orange, South Orange, Irvington and Elizabeth, said Prosecutor Dow. Officials estimate several hundred grams of cocaine and approximately 100 bricks of heroin were being sold each week.
Terrell Horton, 34, Tirik Jackson, 36, Stephon Johnson, 35, and Jamal Wiley, 34, all of Newark, were the main targets of a joint investigation by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Gang and Narcotics VIPER Unit, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Essex County Sheriff’s Office, Newark Police, Orange Police, South Orange Police and Maplewood Police.

92 replies on “Alleged Drug Thugs Arrested”

  1. That’s amazing. Good job to everyone involved for getting these dangerous people (and drugs) off the streets.

  2. I often think Annette Batson has severe problems writing clearly. The second paragraph is a good example why.

  6. Pay me, HidingIn…, and I’d do so happily. And much better.
    (Why do you dislike football so? Does membership in the Math Club instead turn you on? Or did you once have a real thing for hall monitors?)

  7. cathar
    I don’t dislike football. As a matter of fact, the superbowl will be on at my house this coming Sunday.
    It is you that I dislike. I remember you from CU. I remember your uppity “I’m so superior” attitude.
    You feel free to criticize, yet when asked to show how you’d do it differently you demand payment.
    No, I don’t think you’d do it “much better”. I’ve read your writing and it sucks. Anything that can be said clearly will be obfuscated since you see through the glass darkly.
    I suggest zoloft and daily therapy.

  8. Cathar,
    I read the second paragraph twice and couldn’t find anything really wrong with it. It didn’t rock my world or anything but it wasn’t unclear, at least, to me.
    Anyway, I’m glad to hear these masters of mayhem are now safely ensconced behind bars and will, hopefully, be there for a very, very long time.

  9. the second paragraph is fine. it’s akin to the police blotter and there’s nothing there that strunk & white could improve.

  10. MellonBrush, respectfully, read it again. “…some of the suspects were armed with loaded semi-automatic handguns.” Which makes one wonder, a) what were the other suspects armed with? and b) why mention that the guns were “loaded” in the first place?
    The editorial felony is compounded by the next sentence, “in addition, three loaded semi-automatic handguns…” Duh! And were they the same guns three of the suspects were caught packing, or different ones? Also, “seven targets” remain at large? Targets?
    This is all NewsWriting 101. It’s the kind of thing the adviser to the student paper in high school catches before the issue goes to bed. And it is rather typical of Ms. Batson’s writing on a daily basis.
    HidiingIn…, if you found me “uppity” in college, I think that just indicates I’ve long been a person of taste. I don’t believe we ever really met back then foir various reasons, but feel free to contact me privately someday and correct my memory. It’s a far better tactic than your current approach of futile verbal flailings.

  11. cathar,
    They’re not futile if you feel you have to defend against them.
    Yes, Richard you have long been a person who feels they are superior to all of those around them. It is a feeling that is out of place.

  12. .. makes me wonder, if you get caught with an unloaded handgun tucked in your baggy trousers is this a lesser crime than if it were loaded, or loaded with a round in the cylinder, or a round in the cylinder with the magazine removed and loaded with an extra round to give you 11 rounds instead of the legal 10. Are all these states of gun possession equivalent under the law?

  13. Cathar,
    The three additional guns the article refers to were seized during the course of the investigation, not during the final takedown. As for your other complaints, such as the mention of the word “targets” – what the heck are you even talking about??? If you’re such a great newswriter, I better see your name on the Eyewitness News credits.
    Stop being such a critic, you weirdo. Bottom line, some bad guys are off the streets.

  14. Mellonbrush — I think one would have to know the context in which one was caught in any of the scenarios you mention. If one uses an unloaded gun during the actual commission of a crime, there’s no question that it would be treated differently — though still very seriously — than if the gun were loaded and read to go. In one case it’s a deadly weapon, in the other, not so much. One’s state of mind and intent, or mens rea, is a critical element of any crime to be charged.

  15. MB,
    I would think that having a handgun with 10 or less rounds in it would include having an empty handgun (especially if they can prove it is a fired handgun) much in the same way that a gun with 10 in the mag and one in the chamber must have at one point had 11 rounds in the mag.
    But, you’re right that it would be interesting to see how specifically the laws are worded.

  16. Cathar’s a bitter old jackass whose best days are long behind him, perhaps cast in amber and left on the fields of his old alma mater back in ’67. All he’s got left is bile and wonderment at how he somehow failed to live up to his own inflated sense of himself. Forget him; the rest of the world has.

  17. GNM,
    You can load a magazine with 10 rounds, jack one into the cylinder, remove the magazine, replace the loaded round. You now have a weapon with 11 rounds that never had more than 10 in the magazine and at one point had 9.
    I don’t know if this is legal, even for registered handgun owners that keep loaded weapons in their homes.

  20. I suppose that could be argued (and some lawyer somewhere probably has). But, I don’t how they could possibly prove that in court.

  21. I was in a street gang when I was a kid, the ‘Egyptian Lords’. There were five of us and we went out and bought cool looking knives and everything. We were in the middle of starting a ‘beef’ with another gang from 15th St. in East Orange when we all kind of lost interest and went back to boxing in Larry B’s back yard and playing football in the Oval.

  22. Lord knows cathar can be at times dyspeptic and haughty, but he is also capable of being generous and even gentle. What’s more, his command of the language is exceptional, and he has read a great many books. The resentment expressed here, I think, has much to due with embarrassment at our own relative shortcomings, and it’s not a pretty sight.

  23. All due respect, Walleroo, but no. I find Cathar to be an insufferable bully, always willing to attack those he perceives as “weaker” than himself but very quick to accuse others of being overly aggressive or short of temper. His facility with language notwithstanding, he deserves whatever vitriol goes his way.

  24. Some would call this drug bust a triumph. I call it a disgrace. This gang and this underground economy would not exist but for prohibition. Drug abuse is a social health problem. Criminalization of drugs diverts resources for actual solutions for drug abuse. Prohibition is massive waste of money and an attack on liberty.

  25. Wow. Just, wow.
    If this were a story about some pot bust or another, I’d expect a post like that. But heroin and coke?
    You know, Mikey, I’ve heard shooting cat tranquilizers will give you one hell of a high, too. Why don’t you buy some and let us know how that works out.
    Or is that another unfair victim of “prohibition”, too?
    (I mean, seriously, this guy is for real?)

  27. These gangs would not exist if it wasn’t for prohibition. I’m not suggesting legalization but decriminalization.
    Focus on the problem, drug abuse. Stop “the war on drugs” and put resources directly into drug treatment and education. That is the only rational choice in my opinion.
    Cat tranquilizer or ketamine, also known at special K, can be acquired in less time than it takes to deliver pizza. Yay war on drugs!

  28. The type and the amount of drugs seized, not to mention the loaded weapons removes this from the realm of “prohibition.” Everyone is fortunate that no one was killed during the raid….but those addicts waiting for these drugs will have a bitter weekend.

  29. Probably not. They have more than one source. NY is right across the river. There may even be secondary sources in NJ.

  30. I’m not suggesting legalization but decriminalization
    Um, once something is… er… “decriminalized”… Isn’t that essentially making it legal?
    I’m all for getting rid of mandatory sentencing because it does put a lot of drug users behind bars instead of rehab.
    But, and feel free to correct me if this wasn’t your suggestion, to stop going after the dealers on the grounds of “there will always be more dealers” seems to be an incredibly bad way to go about things.

  31. I think the second paragraph is written clearly. I understood it just fine. The statement “…some of the suspects were armed with loaded semi-automatic handguns” tells me that the those suspects were carrying weapons on their person. The next sentence (“in addition, three loaded semi-automatic handguns…”) tells me that other weapons were recovered in addition to the ones the suspects were armed with (physically carrying).

  32. Legalization means to remove all laws against a substance or activity and allowing it to be engaged openly.
    Decriminalization means to end criminal penalties while maintaining civil sanctions.
    I support decriminalization.

  33. Decriminalization means to end criminal penalties while maintaining civil sanctions.
    I’ve got a feeling that the Bangers arrested in this thread wouldn’t care much about the implications of “civil sanctions.”
    Hell, they don’t seem to care all that much that they could eventuatlly end up facing those “criminal penalties” you want to do away with.
    (and this is the last I’ll say on the subject. It’s really starting to feel like I’m shouting into the wind.)

  35. The reason they are gang bangers is because there is an illegal market with awesome returns.
    The illegal drug market is the purest form of “free” market capitalism in the world and the power derived from drug profits is virtually unstoppable.
    You can not stop the flow of drugs. The best you can do is spoil the market, minimize the negatives, and treat the drug abuse problem.

  36. > I’ve got a feeling that the Bangers arrested in this thread wouldn’t care much about the implications of “civil sanctions.”
    Oh, yeah? Not if you take their house, cars, and gold chains around their necks. They got into it for the money. Attacking the money and market is an awesome tactic and much cheaper than filling up jails.

  37. “The reason they are gang bangers is because there is an illegal market with awesome returns.”
    No, they are gang bangers because they are scum bags and thugs that enjoy victimizing society and the sooner we lock all these diseased souls up, the better.

  38. > No, they are gang bangers because they are scum bags and thugs that enjoy victimizing society and the sooner we lock all these diseased souls up, the better.
    What a stupid, simplistic, elitist, and possibly racist view. I suppose with that logic the only thing good for them is death.
    If only you could be deported from baristaville.

  39. I love it…headline uses the word “alleged” and story states.
    “At the time of the arrests, some of the suspects were armed with loaded semi-automatic handguns. Detectives seized more than 500 grams of cocaine and 100 grams of heroin. In addition, three loaded semi-automatic handguns, three vehicles and approximately $50,000 in cash were recovered.”

  40. “What a stupid, simplistic, elitist, and possibly racist view. I suppose with that logic the only thing good for them is death.”
    I fail to see where his comments are racist.
    “If only you could be deported from baristaville.”
    So true to form. Anyone whose opinion differs from yours, you want banned. Just like Obama.

  41. I would just like to pause and appreciate the Glory of God, Who in His Infinite Wisdom has not put lasermike in charge of the local police.

  43. I love that my , uh, “critics” are out in force today. Even, perhaps, all feeling a bit “uppity.” But the fact remains, Ms. Batson is not a writer one reads for clear, well-put, declarative prose on this site. Not today or any other day. So defend her at your own grammatical and journalistic peril.
    And laserblood, aren’t you being just a tad presumptive? Intemperate, even? Again with the quick, unthought through accusations of “racism?” (Been hanging with dannyboor?) Where is there anything even smacking of race in MellonBrush’s quite reasonable views on gang members?
    Why, too, laserhididdlydee, were you totally silent just yesterday, when croiagusanam posited to general approval that you’re in fact unhinged? I notice you didn’t weigh in on that one.

  46. I agree the quality of the writing and journalism here at Baristanet has declined in the past year or so. Not much we can do about it. The B-Queens will do what they want to do. All they care about is the amount of traffic they get, so they can sell online advertising.
    And Rush Limbaugh will say anything to gain viewers/listeners and retain his current audience. The more outrageous, the better — from his perspective. That is what brings the flamers and haters who think he’s a giant douchebag (he is). Like the B-Queens, he only cares about the number of eyeballs and ears listening, reading and watching his antics.

  47. “What a stupid, simplistic, elitist, and possibly racist view. I suppose with that logic the only thing good for them is death.”
    Why is it that some people always feel the need to appologize for thugs and miscreants. It’s as if they are looking for a way to excuse their own ‘short-comings’ by coming to the defense of the indefensible.
    Good Lord, what a world.

  48. He’s an entertainer, first and foremost. His opinions, whether or not you agree with him, are not the issue. It’s that people would like to silence him because they don’t agree with him. That’s rather un-American, don’t you think?

  50. Cathar,
    Did you know that if you weren’t always pointing out all the negative things you see in people/things, and started thinking about the positive, you’d end up living a much more fulfilling, less stressful life. Come on, how much joy can you get out of ragging on someone for something like this? Or is your mind that twisted that it gets a rush from pissing people off?
    Anyway Cathar, don’t be jealous but this morning your BFF lasermike befriended me on Facebook. Are you on there? We have GOT TO CONNECT!!!!

  52. Overtaxed,
    Yes, because they are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law (not the court of popular opinion).
    While unlikely, it is still possible that some or all of them are innocent.
    (I mean, come on, didn’t you see “Eagle Eye?”)

  53. Actually let me change “pissing people off” in my last comment to “upsetting people” because I’m sure along with all those you’ve pissed off, there have been a few you’ve really upset. Do you like upsetting people with comments you could have kept to yourself?

  57. Holy crap, Cathar, I searched your name and there IS someone with your name. I hope it’s you. PLEASE PLEASE accept my friend request.

  58. I think Cathar is the “cat’s pajamas”. He’s my favorite commentator. I’ve been in his ‘sights’ on more than one occasion and felt honored to have attracted his attention!

  60. Listen MellonBrush, I am the one who should be honored since Cathar was almost always the first to leave such wanderful feedback on posts about our road trip.

  63. Lasermike,
    What rock do you live under? Because i want to find one just like it…
    Did you read the part where it said these guys were “Bloods”??? Do you realize this is a violent street gang whose criminal activities include acts of violence, weapons and murder???? So this is all prohibitions fault??!?!?!!
    Are you a moron???

  66. He obviously watches fox news. The Cavuto “?” has become a classic.
    Cause and effect is a very difficult concept to grasp. And the scientific method… I better stop there.

  67. Well, with decriminalized drugs, even free drugs on demand, street gangs would thrive by other means, like murder for hire, extortion, conspiracy to commit any number of things. Maybe even carjacking, robbery, and home invasions. This is not the 60s anymore.

  68. That is simply not true. Criminal enterprises other than those involving the drug market are difficult, dangerous, and not as lucrative. All you have to do is take a look at the research and you would see that your reasoning is completely false. Decriminalizing drugs we simply mean that drug gangs would be poor or nonexistent.

  69. Lasermike is right on.
    Do you realize how many high risk home invasions, murders for hire and car jackings it would take to to make as much as you can flipping a couple of kilos of cocaine??

  70. Organized crime has many lucrative enterprises including, but not limited to extorting businesses and labor unions, prostitution, gambling, car theft, fencing stolen property etc. Drugs are only one component in a complex equation, and while decriminalization of it might make a certain amount of sense to some, overall, I don’t believe we’re mired in a puritanical mindset that defies reason.

  71. Katie,
    cathar is on facebook under the name that his mother gave him. Poor boy as he only has one friend listed- Marsha Papanek
    Cathar, is that your only friend??

  72. Lasermike and friends, You guys are only thinking about the drug aspect of this. The Bloods are extremely violent – they steal cars, rob your homes, and kill people. Its not all about drugs. For their initiations, they beat the crap out of innocent people. Remember the MS 13 initiation in Newark which reulted in the execution style killings of a couple of innocent kids??? Will decriminalization stop this?? Absolutely not. Now go back under your rock to that bizarro world you live in.

  74. Don’t be ridiculous, Mrs. M. The Dem campaign committee was, according to Fox, sending around a petition expressing outrage. So what? Limbaugh expresses outrage all the time. Nothing there about banning anybody. You’re grasping at straws here.

  75. MellonBrush:
    Just so you know, you’re confusing NJ gun laws with NY/CA gun laws. NJ has a magazine limit, but it’s only 15 rounds… The law 2C:39-1(y) is actually against possessing the magazine itself, nothing else, so you couldn’t really get in trouble for walking around with 15+1 in the chamber… You’d just go to jail for carrying a concealed weapon.

  76. I hate to say it but laser, the normally illerate useless idiot, is right on this one(the proverbial clock). The cost of all the people who conducted this 5 month investigation, plus all the future involvees, judges, lawyers, incarcerators, parole boards stretching into the distant future far outweigh the chump change drugs and weapons and cash that were captured. Decriminalization would make the denizens of the Criminal(not always) Justice(hardly ever) Industrial Complex go hermantile at the thought that they would soon share the fate of the UAW. But since most lawmakers are lawyers first, except for those billionaires who purchase office ala Lousenberg, Cordouche, etc. the chances for rationality are slim.
    Cather, I love your erudition.
    I know praise from me will inflame the microdouches on this board but they are lumpen with delusions of competence and are typical products of what passes for education these days. They’ve been taught by posts.

  77. There is a delicious irony in theproblem’s love of cathar’s “erudition”.
    What he knows about erudition is that a couple of the letters are the same as those in “douchebag”.
    What a buffoon.

  78. We have all these police, lawyers, judges, prosecutors and prison staff on the payroll anyway. Better we keep them occupied with the bad guys (gang bangers).

  79. I often think that ms.Cathar has severe problems writing clearly or staying on topic w/o sounding like a 80 yr. old sour jacka_s. The second posting is a good example why.

  88. Rush is entitled to express his opinion, just as you are entitled to express yours. If you cannot comprehend this simple truth, then you are dumber than I thought.

  90. I think the President expressed an opinion:
    “You can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done.”
    As did Rush:
    On Monday, Limbaugh shot back at Obama, opening his show by saying, “I’m the man you should not be listening, according to President Obama.”
    “I think [Obama] wants me to fail,” Limbaugh said. “He’s more frightened of me than he is of John Boehner, which doesn’t say much for our party.”
    The remarks came after Limbaugh said last week on his radio show: “If I wanted Obama to succeed, I’d be happy the Republicans have laid down. I don’t want this to work. So I’m thinking of replying to this guy, say “okay, I’ll send you a response, but I don’t need 400 words, I need four: I hope he fails’.”
    I believe that says it all.
    The only question I have MM is how a petition (or the first quote) is banning anyone?
    “an online petition to express outrage”
    Sounds more like democracy at work.
    (*quotes come from link provided, fox news must hire the same HS students as the Star-Ledger for editing.)

  91. Tom, I believe Mrs Marta thinks I’m dumb and that Limbaugh is patriotic. She also thinks that Limbaugh who wants our new President to fail is a patriot. I agree he does have the right to express his unpatriotic opinions. And the DCCC has the right to call him out on his unpatriotic opinions. No one wants to silence him. He should just be more as Mrs. Marta says of a patriot.

  92. Tom, I believe Mrs Marta thinks I’m dumb and that Limbaugh is patriotic. She also thinks that Limbaugh who wants our new President to fail is a patriot. I agree he does have the right to express his unpatriotic opinions. And the DCCC has the right to call him out on his unpatriotic opinions. No one wants to silence him. He should just be more as Mrs. Marta says of a patriot.

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