Lakewood, NJ – For the third time in a week, law enforcement officials in Ocean County made a large-scale drug bust, seizing more than 400 grams of cocaine at a township home early Friday morning.
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Acting on information developed during an investigation in concert with the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, members of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office’s Special Operations Group and Lakewood police officers executed a search warrant at 207 E. Seventh St.
Inside, they found the 425 grams of cocaine estimated to carry a street value of more than $40,000 as well as a .38-caliber handgun and drug packaging materials, Prosecutor Marlene Lynch Ford said in a statement.
“Our Special Operations Group has been tasked with the job of utilizing intelligence-based policing to identify and shut down significant drug operations in Ocean County. Once again, they have delivered,” she said.
The bust came less than 24 hours after 1,950 bags of heroin were found inside a car during a motor-vehicle stop and two days after authorities raided five homes in southern Ocean County and recovered several pounds of marijuana.
None of the investigations was connected, and the fact that the seizures fell one after the other is coincidental, said Capt. Jack Sramaty of the Special Operations Group.
“It’s just a lot of hard work of the guys in the squad,” he said.
Arrested Friday were Pabolo Zavaleta Garcia, 23, and Angel Lopez, 36.
Garcia was being held in lieu of $500,000 cash bail at Ocean County Jail in Toms River. He faces charges of possession of more than five ounces of cocaine with the intent to distribute, possession of a firearm, possession with intent to distribute within a school zone and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Lopez is being held in lieu of $5,000 bail and is charged with possession of less than a half-ounce of cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Assisting in the investigation were members of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency’s Atlantic City office. Toms River Police K-9 officers assisted in the warrant execution.
Thursday’s heroin bust — resulting in the arrests of Ernest “Supreme” McElrath, 33, of Toms River, and Kevin “Biz” Noel, 32, of Lakewood — came after a Lakewood police officer made a motor-vehicle stop. Prior to the stop, Berkeley, Beachwood and Toms River police officers had investigated a ring suspected of supplying heroin to the three towns.
Wednesday morning’s raids, which also included a Newark home, were expected to put a large dent in the marijuana market of southern Ocean County, officials said. In all, 11 people were arrested, and more than 20 pounds of marijuana was seized along with 5 ounces of cocaine.
While the amount of drugs seized in each case is noteworthy, it should not be taken as a sign that there are more drugs on the street in Ocean County than in the past, Sramaty said. Rather, it is an indication that interagency cooperation is yielding results, he said.
“It’s about the cooperation of everybody. It brings more resources, more manpower, more equipment together,” Sramaty said.
Enough is enough!!! Sell these houses to frum yidden!!
Finally someone in Lakewood is trying to make a living.
#2 - Do you think the landlord did not know what was going on??
Maybe he did know what was going on, but they always paid the rent on time in cash. Isn’t that what really matters?
why does everyone hound lakewood the shayna yidden who own homes in harlem are also filled with drug lords etc
these jewish owners purchase homes 10 years ago before these neighborhoods were frum and now yidden are moving in and making the frum owners to be at fault im not so sure if you can put the blame on jewish owners who are trying to earn a living they arent dealing drugs and arent responsible as to how thier tenants earn their rent??
Please stop hating so much your own brothers and sisters stop it you depressed idiots allways bussy how to talk gossip about our own …what do u want from goyim if u yourself hate them ?MIT AZELECHE FRIEND VER DARF SONIM ? I had a friend who was allways bussy that nobody is paying taxes only he and onlu he is working hard all of a suden he lost money in the stock market and he stopped paying tax u never know in what situation u will be one day don’t be so perfect MR PERFECT
POssibly Maybe it’s bad to have cocaine and heroine sales on a block in Lakewood possibly????????????????
EAST Seventh Street is hardly the center of the Jewish community in Lakewood.
If it would have been SEVENTH Street, it would have been a different story.
As long as the drugs are kosher and the owner of the house gets paid on time,and no Jew buys the drugs,so what? If he rents it to A yeshiva family he might have trouble receiving the rent.(Being sarcastic)!
obviously, you haven’t been to l/w in the past 5 years. what about abraham’s way, shoshana….
Its mamash Nisht oistuhalten ..These mexicans come into town and selling drugs in a yeshivish neighboorhood? i heard that mamash under that window a guy was learning his shiur. And chas vesholem if it were a shootout? there is pushit no peshat for this , the only segulah is that we must rid ourselfs from these mexicans
These Lakewood drug gangsters were caught because of undercover operations and a fortuitous car stop. But now, President Obama’s Justice Department will probably be headed by some ACLU-type bleeding heart liberal who will lean on local police departments to curb such operations because a “disproportionate” number of minority-group members are being arrested in them (DOJ can use the carrot or the stick — it doles out lots of money to local PDs and can threaten to withdraw those grants if the local departmnet doesnt play ball, or it can even go to court to demand oversight of departments through court appointed monitors — the Los Angeles police are currently in this situation, and crime out there is going way up.) Look for crime rates to rise in Lakewood and many other places that will soon look like NYC did back in the John Lindsay years.