More Than 300 Heroin Bricks, Guns, Cash, Seized in New Jersey Drug Bust

Authorities seized more than 300 bricks of heroin, semi-automatic handguns, hollow-point bullets and nearly $20,000 in cash in a drug ring takedown in New Jersey over the weekend.

Six people were arrested and two suspected heroin mills in Paterson were dismantled as part of the investigation led by the New Jersey State Police, the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office and the DEA's High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force.

Authorities say four of the suspects were taken into custody in their cars. In one case, troopers pulled over a suspect's 2010 Honda Accord on Interstate 80 in Saddle Brook Township and found him and his passenger in possession of heroin packaging and distribution materials. They were both arrested. 

Officers stopped a 2003 Ford Explorer on the same highway in Hackensack City as part of the ongoing probe and found 165 bricks of heroin and hollow-point bullets in a hidden compartment in the car. The driver and his passenger were arrested at the scene. 

Two more suspects were taken into custody when investigators responded to the two Paterson homes -- one on 18th Avenue, another on Spring Street -- believed to be operating as heroin mills. Authorities recovered heroin manufacturing and distribution supplies, another 146 bricks of heroin, cash, ammunition, semi-automatic handguns and a silencer, among other paraphernalia, at those homes. 

They also found 14 ounces of raw heroin and another semi-automatic gun in a car in a garage at the Spring Street home.

The suspects, who range in age from 22 to 43, face a variety of charges, including drug possession and conspiracy. They're all being held at the Bergen County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail. 

Authorities said the bust helped keep heroin and illegal guns off the streets.
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