Traffickers turning North Jersey region into ‘giant narcotics warehouse’

Traffickers turning North Jersey region into ‘giant narcotics warehouse’
Sunday December 22, 2013, 10:53 PM
BY  TOM MASHBERG
STAFF WRITER
The Record

Related: Inside N.J. suburban drug mills, a grimy, lucrative business

For decades, North Jersey has been a place where New York workers settle into quiet homes and where freight destined for the Empire State can be conveniently and affordably stored.

Now, drug traffickers operating out of New York that are looking to expand sales and evade police are ferrying large amounts of heroin into North Jersey, turning the region into what law enforcement officials call “a giant narcotics warehouse.”

In the past five years, at least two dozen major New Jersey busts have had New York links, netting several hundred kilos of heroin and leading to scores of arrests and prosecutions, according to police and prosecutors.

In May, police in Fort Lee spotted a car with a flat tire in the middle of a main road. The driver, John Rivas, 52, of the Bronx, said he had been visiting friends nearby. Police went to the address given by Rivas and fell upon four New York men smoking pot and milling 2 pounds of heroin.

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