Acting Attorney General Robert Lougy announced that two defendants pleaded guilty today to first-degree charges that they distributed heroin and operated a heroin mill as members of a major heroin supply network in Camden.
They were 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.
They also were charged in a separate investigation by the same agencies called “Operation 3Ni.”
These two defendants, both Camden residents, pleaded guilty today before Superior Court Judge John T. Kelley in Camden County:
Jose O. Fortuna, 40, pleaded guilty to first-degree maintaining a heroin production facility, a charge contained in the indictment in Operation China White, and first-degree distribution of heroin, in connection with Operation 3Ni. Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that he be sentenced to 14.5 years in state prison, including five years of parole ineligibility, on the heroin distribution charge, and a concurrent sentence of 12 years, including 4 ½ years of parole ineligibility, on the heroin production facility charge.
Wilson Fortuna, 26, Jose Fortuna’s nephew, pleaded guilty 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. Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that he be sentenced to 11 years in state prison, including more than three years of parole ineligibility, on the distribution charge, and a concurrent sentence of seven years on the conspiracy charge.
The joint investigation revealed that Wilson Fortuna was a heroin supplier who supplied heroin to drug dealers within 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 Fortuna maintained inside his residence in the 300 block of North 41st Street in Camden.
Jose and Wilson Fortuna were arrested in October 2013, along with four other defendants who were indicted in Operation China White. Detectives and agents executed search warrants at the home of Wilson Fortuna and the home shared by Jose Fortuna and another defendant, Jasmine Vallar, 38, of Camden. At the home of Jose Fortuna and Vallar, 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.