A suspect, charged with operating a mobile drug bazaar and multiple counts of aggravated assault on law enforcement officers, was arraigned today following his arrest on Sunday by Essex County sheriff’s detectives.
Responding to numerous complaints of open-air drug trafficking by residents and business owners in the city’s North Ward, Sheriff Armando Fontoura stated that detectives from his department’s Bureau of Narcotics conducted a plainclothes surveillance operation in the area of Broadway and Oriental Place yesterday afternoon.
At this location, the BON detectives observed a male suspect, Bilal Rodgers, 25, of Newark loitering in the courtyard of a residential complex. He was soon approached by a female and after a brief conversation Rodgers walked to his parked 2003 Acura TL where he removed items from a knit hat that was on the center console.
Rodgers exchanged the items with the woman, later identified as 40-year-old Linda Ramirez of Belleville, for cash.
Ramirez was followed from the scene and detained a few blocks away. She was found to be in possession of five heroin-filled glassine envelops, stamped “JUST DO IT” in red ink.
“Simultaneously, our BON detectives followed Rodgers as he drove away from the scene and parked in a driveway on Broad Street,” Sheriff Fontoura said. “We the suspect boxed in and we announced our presence. Rodgers went into an immediate rage and began punching, elbowing, kneeing, kicking and spitting at our detectives. He was, however, subdued quickly and placed under arrest.”
The knit hat was found to contain an additional 164 envelops of heroin, 28 vials of ‘crack’ cocaine and 26 Xanax tablets.
“The suspect was apparently catering to the most common street tastes,” Fontoura noted.
Rodgers was charged with four counts each of aggravated assault on law enforcement officers and 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 Rafael Hernandez School and possession of CDS with intent to distribute within 500 feet of a public housing complex.
Rodgers was also charged with distribution of CDS and resisting arrest.
At today’s arraignment, Rodgers was ordered held at the county jail in lieu of $150,000 cash bond only.
Ramirez was charged with possession of CDS. She was also found to be in violation of an order issued against her by the New Jersey State Parole Board and to be the subject of an open warrant issued by the Saddle River municipal court.
Ramirez remains lodged at the county jail.