A reputed Bloods street gang member was arraigned this afternoon on multiple drug charges following his arrest on Saturday by a law enforcement task force comprised of Essex County sheriff’s detectives and Irvington police officers.
Responding to numerous neighborhood complaints of open-air drug trafficking near the intersection of North 9th Street and 4th Avenue in Newark’s North Ward, Sheriff Armando Fontoura stated that his department’s Bureau of Narcotics along with officers from the Irvington Police Department conducted a plainclothes surveillance operation at that location on Saturday afternoon.
The suspect, later identified as Vernon Robinson, 30, of East Orange was observed loitering in front of 218 North 9th Street.
A male passerby later engaged Robinson in a brief conversation. Robinson was seen opening a nearby garbage can and retrieving items from a black plastic bag. The items were exchanged for cash.
When the passerby exited the location the sheriff’s BON detectives and Irvington officers moved in to further investigate.
“The plastic bag in the garbage can was found to contain 180 heroin-filled glassine envelopes, stamped ‘SPRINT’ in green ink, and 111 clear glass vials containing ‘crack’ cocaine,” Sheriff Fontoura said. “More than $1,300 was also found on the unemployed suspect’s person.”
Robinson was charged with two counts each of possession of a controlled dangerous substance and possession of CDS with intent to distribute.
At today’s arraignment, Robinson was ordered held at the Essex County jail in lieu of $150,000 cash bond only.