Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino announced that a man was sentenced to state prison today on charges that he was a supplier who sold heroin to other dealers as part of a major heroin supply network in Camden.
He was indicted as the result of a joint investigation called “Operation China White” that was led by the New Jersey State Police, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice.
He also was charged in a separate indictment stemming from a second investigation by the same agencies called “Operation 3Ni.”
Wilson Fortuna, 27, of Camden, was sentenced today to 11 years in state prison, including more than three years of parole ineligibility, by Superior Court Judge John T. Kelley in Camden. He pleaded guilty on March 22 to first-degree distribution of heroin, a charge contained in the indictment in Operation China White, and second-degree conspiracy, in connection with Operation 3Ni.
The joint investigations revealed that Wilson Fortuna was a heroin supplier who sold heroin to dealers in the ring targeted in Operation China White, as well as an alleged heroin dealer arrested in Operation 3Ni. Wilson Fortuna obtained heroin from a heroin mill that his uncle, Jose O. Fortuna, maintained inside his residence in the 300 block of North 41st Street in Camden.
Jose Fortuna, 40, of Camden, was sentenced on April 29 to 14 ½ years in prison, including five years of parole ineligibility, He pleaded guilty on March 22 to first-degree maintaining a heroin production facility, a charge from the indictment in Operation China White, and first-degree distribution of heroin, in connection with Operation 3Ni. A third defendant, Andy Lopez, 32, of Camden, was sentenced on April 29 to 10 years in state prison, including five years of parole ineligibility, pursuant to his guilty plea to first-degree distribution of heroin in Operation China White.
Wilson and Jose Fortuna were arrested in October 2013. Detectives and agents executed search warrants at the homes of both men. At the home of Jose Fortuna, the investigators found a heroin production facility in the basement containing a steel hydraulic press, 12 containers of a dietary supplement used as a cutting agent, scales, tools used for cutting and packaging, a currency counter, and $30,000 in cash. They also found a plastic bag containing three-quarters of a kilo of heroin.
Lopez was charged in connection with two sales of first-degree quantities of heroin to an undercover officer. On July 24, 2013, he sold more than five ounces of heroin to the undercover officer at a location next to Von Neida Park in Camden.
On Oct. 10, 2013, Lopez sold nearly nine ounces of heroin to the undercover officer at the same location. The heroin for the second transaction was obtained from Wilson Fortuna immediately prior to the sale. Lopez was arrested after that transaction.