A reputed Bloods street gang member is scheduled for arraignment later today on multiple drug and weapons charges following his arrest last night by Essex County sheriff’s detectives.
As part of a series of on-going drug trafficking investigations in the city’s North Ward, Sheriff Armando Fontoura stated that detectives from his department’s Bureau of Narcotics, armed with a search warrant, conducted a raid on an apartment, located at 84 Broad Street.
“Inside the apartment, our BON detectives seized a fully loaded, 9mm, Glock semi-automatic handgun, 111 vials of ‘crack’ cocaine and 263 heroin-filled envelopes, stamped ‘SUMMER JAM’ in red ink,” Sheriff Fontoura said.
The target of the investigation, Andre Harris, 25, was not on the premises and an around the clock canvass of the area resulted in the arrest of Harris on Thursday evening at Oriental Place and Broad Street.
Harris was charged with two 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 Rafael Hernandez School and possession of CDS with intent to distribute within 500 feet of a public housing complex.
Harris was also charged with the unlawful possession of a handgun and he was found to the subject of an open criminal warrant on a prior narcotics charge.
Last night, Judge Vanessa Williams Powell set bail on Harris at $200,000 cash bond only and the suspect was lodged at the county jail where he awaits arraignment later today.