By: Richard L. Smith
A Hudson County man was sentenced today to 16 years in prison for drug distribution and weapons offenses, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.
Federal officials said Jabar Evans, 45, of Jersey City, was convicted on October 20, 2023, of unlawful possession of a firearm, possession with intent to distribute controlled substances, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
According to court documents and trial evidence, Evans controlled a fentanyl manufacturing facility in a Jersey City hotel room in 2021.
On June 22, 2021, Evans moved his drug operation to a larger hotel room. Surveillance video captured Evans moving his belongings in the middle of the night.
During the move, Evans inadvertently left two firearms in the safe of his old room, which hotel staff discovered and turned over to law enforcement.
Law enforcement officers arrested Evans in his new room, where they found over 12,000 glassines of fentanyl, bags containing hundreds of grams of uncut fentanyl and methamphetamine, and narcotics packaging and manufacturing equipment, both in plain view and hidden in duffel bags in the ceiling.
U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited the Jersey City Police Department, under the direction of Public Safety Director James Shea, for the investigation that led to the sentencing. He also thanked FBI special agents in Newark, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James E. Dennehy.
This investigation was part of the Jersey City Violent Crime Initiative (VCI), which the U.S. formed in 2018.
Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, and the Jersey City Police Department. The VCI aims to combat violent crime in and around Jersey City through collaboration among federal, state, county, and city agencies to strategize and prioritize the prosecution of violent offenders who endanger community safety.