48 Arrested In Newark Area Drug Ring Takedown
NEWARK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- Forty-eight people, including a juvenile, were arrested in following a five-month investigation into drugs and violence in Essex County, New Jersey.
The Essex County Prosecutor's office said the arrests – which included one in a murder and one on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, prosecutors said.
Operation T.I.D.E., or Targeted Integrated Deployment Enforcement, focused on guns, drugs and violence in and around Newark, prosecutors said.
Eleven people have also been charged, but remain at large, prosecutors said.
The drug ring that police and prosecutors targeted was operated by members of the 793 set of the Bloods in Essex County, prosecutors said. The people arrested lived in Essex County, and also in Monmouth and Morris counties, prosecutors said.
The operation resulted in the seizure of $31,064 in cash, as well as heroin, cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, promethazine syrup, and Oxycontin with a street value of $10,000, prosecutors said.
Most of the arrests were on drug charges, prosecutors said. But on May 29, several people were arrested on South 19th Street in Newark – and some were charged in connection with violent crimes, prosecutors said.
Raheem Glaspie, 23, of Irvington was accused in the death of another man, John Betances, prosecuotrs said. He was charged with murder, weapon charges, including possession of a hollow point bullets and an extended magazine, receiving stolen property and being a convicted felon in possession of a gun.
Shaquan Leaks, 22, of Hillside, was charged with conspiracy to commit murder in a May 26 shooting, prosecutors said.
The investigation continued late Wednesday.
