Two brothers, both alleged members of the Crips street gang, and their mother were arraigned today following their arrests on Wednesday afternoon by a law enforcement task force comprised of Essex County sheriff’s detectives and officers from the Bloomfield and Irvington police departments.
Sheriff Armando Fontoura stated that the task force team, working under the direction of his department’s Bureau of Narcotics, staged a plainclothes surveillance operation at 39 Pine Grove Terrace in Newark, prior to exercising a search warrant for that location, yesterday at noon.
“When the task force members observed the target of our investigation, Alrahim ‘Cheddar’ Claiborne, 23, outside his residence he was immediately detained and the search warrant was executed,” Sheriff Fontoura said.
The suspect’s mother, Daneka Claiborne, 42, was found lying in bed, thumbing through a narcotics ledger. She was detained, along with her younger son, Karon Johnson, 18, and another suspect, later identified as Duvall Johnson, 36 also of Newark, who was visiting the residence and is not related to any of the other suspects.
“In executing the warrant, our detectives discovered and seized a .40 caliber Smith & Wesson semi-automatic handgun, loaded with illegal hollow point bullets. The weapon was found to be stolen out of Orangeburg, Colorado,” Fontoura noted.
“Our detectives also discovered 212 heroin-filled glassine envelopes, stamped ‘HULK’ in blue ink, a plastic bag filled with ‘crack’ cocaine and a large bottle of liquid Promethazine (codeine), in addition to multiple caches of ammunition, additional gun magazines and a wide assortment of drug processing and packaging materials,” the sheriff added.
Duvall Johnson was also found to be in possession of a small bag of marijuana.
Alrahim Claiborne, Karon Johnson and Daneka Claiborne were each charged three counts each of possession of a controlled dangerous substance, possession of CDS with intent to distribute, possession of CDS with intent to distribute within 1000 feet of Alexander Street School and possession of CDS with intent to distribute within 500 feet of the Vailsburg Public Library.
The three suspects were also charged with the unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon while committing a CDS crime, possession of hollow point ammunition, possession of illegal extended gun magazine, receiving stolen property, possession of narcotics paraphernalia and conspiracy to violate New Jersey’s narcotics laws.
At today’s arraignment, bail was set on Alrahim Claiborne and Karon Johnson at $150,000 cash bond only and on Daneka Claiborne at $75,000 cash bond only. All three suspects were lodged at the Essex County jail.
Duvall Johnson was issued a summons for possession of CDS and was released in his own recognizance.
He will be arraigned at a later date.