An armed out-of-state male suspect and an unarmed out-of-state female fugitive were arrested on Wednesday in two separate incidents by Essex County sheriff’s detectives and by a task force comprised of federal and local law enforcement officers.
Sheriff Armando Fontoura stated that the male suspect was arraigned today on weapons and drug charges while the female suspect is being held for extradition on attempted murder and weapons charges.
Fontoura said detectives from his department’s Bureau of Narcotics conducted a plainclothes surveillance last night at the intersection of Davenport Avenue and North 11th Street in Newark, a known drug trafficking area.
“Our BON detectives observed as Michael Williams, 49, of Middletown, Delaware, loitered in the area while holding a white plastic bag,” Fontoura noted. “When our BON detectives moved in to further investigate, Williams ran from the scene. As he ran, Williams reached into the plastic bag, removed a handgun and tossed it under a parked car. In doing so, three heroin-filled glassine envelopes, stamped “FRANK LUCAS” in blue ink, and six glass vials, containing ‘crack’ cocaine, spilled to the ground.”
The suspect was quickly apprehended and the handgun, a fully loaded, .25 caliber, Italian-make Armi Galesi semi-automatic, a second fully loaded magazine and the narcotics were all recovered at the scene.
Fontoura added that earlier in the day, members of the United States Marshal’s Fugitive Task Force, including sheriff’s detectives and local police officers, arrested Lancaster, South Carolina fugitive Martina Jenkins, 22, as she exited a coffee shop in the area of Newark’s Broad and Thomas streets.
“Jenkins was wanted by South Carolina authorities on attempted murder and weapons possession charges, following a shooting incident on February 1, 2016 that resulted in the wounding of a local male in that jurisdiction,” Sheriff Fontoura said.
The arrest of Jenkins was executed without further incident.
Williams was charged with the unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, possession of a weapon while committing a narcotics crime, resisting arrest and two counts each of possession of CDS and possession of CDS with intent to distribute.
At today’s arraignment, Williams was ordered held at the county jail on a cash bond of $75,000.
Jenkins was lodged at the county jail pending extradition proceedings