Posts Tagged ‘criminal’

The drug is concealed internally. Sometimes the suppliers hide the drug in their clothing and at times conceal them in hidden compartments of their luggage. In the year 2003, the inspectors of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) department had seized over 20 kg of heroin in 12 different bags in the Newark Liberty International Airport and had arrested 10 criminals. A significant portion of the drug were hidden in waistbands and sewn collars. In the same year, the ICE also seized a courier on a commercial maritime vessel which was carrying 1,120 gm of the Southeast Asian variety of heroin. The vessel had started from West Africa and was headed to Camden. The wholesale heroin market in New Jersey is actually dominated by the Colombian and Dominican criminal gangs and DTOs.

The Dominican and the African American criminal groups along with the street gangs of New Jersey are involved with the retail level distribution of significant amount of South American heroin in the state. Some of these prominent criminal gangs are Latin Kings, Crips, Bloods, Ñeta and Five Percenters. However, there are also several local independent dealers who are into this retail heroin distribution within the state. To some lesser extent, the Caribbean criminal gangs and Chinese, Puerto Rican, and Colombian heroin abusers or suppliers also sell this drug in retail value. Heroin is primarily sold in the low income housing development zones in the metropolitan areas of New Jersey or the open air drug markets within the state. Mostly these popular distribution centers encompass Camden, Jersey City, Paterson, Elizabeth and Newark. The drug is usually packed in glassine envelopes and sold in bricks, bundles or in bags.