A member of an Atlantic City drug-trafficking organization was sentenced today to 125 months in prison for conspiring to distribute one kilogram or more of heroin, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.
According to U.S. Attorney Sellinger, Terryn Kelsey, 32, of Atlantic City, previously pleaded guilty to an indictment charging him with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute more than one kilogram of heroin.
Seventeen other members of the drug trafficking conspiracy – Khalif Toombs, Tyjuan Demarest, Nasir Brown, Karon Carey, James Blackwell, Philip Surace, David Ramirez, Wilbert Toombs, Quadir Stanley, Dean Johnson, Khalif Davis, Joseph Aversa, Thomas Randall, Mayda Hernandez, Sarah Taliaferro, Wayne Burnside, and Blaine Dorsey – previously have pleaded guilty.
U.S. Attorney Sellinger said that of those 17 defendants, 15 have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from eight to 135 months. The charges against four other defendants, Jeremy Carll, Valarie Lamar, Tieyesha Tucker, and Jamal Marshall, remain pending.
According to documents filed in the case and statements made in court:
Kelsey, along with leader Khalif Toombs and other members of the drug conspiracy, trafficked heroin from Paterson, New Jersey and into Atlantic City throughout the course of the investigation.
Kelsey admitted in court to conspiring with others to traffic between one and three kilograms of heroin during this time and to operating Toombs’ cellular phone to further the conspiracy.
The investigation tracked multiple stamps of heroin being distributed by Toombs and others, including “AK-47,” “Apple,” “Fortnite,” “Rolex,” “Frank Lucas,” “Bentley,” “Pandora,” and “9 ½.”
Between January 1, 2017, and June 21, 2019, those stamps accounted for 48 deaths and 84 non-fatal overdoses in New Jersey.
In addition to the prison term, Kelsey was sentenced to five years of supervised release.
This case is being conducted as part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation.
OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach.
Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.