Essex County Prosecutors announced today a major roundup of 43 gang members affiliated with a female-led division of the Bloods, alleged to be selling $50,000 of illegal drugs weekly in Newark, East Orange, Orange and Montclair. Operation Bloodette, as it was called, yielded a major stash of drugs, with a street value of $133,000:
62 ounces of PCP, 13.3 grams of heroin (266 decks), 54 grams of cocaine, and 36 grams of marijuana, with a total estimated street value of $133,000. In addition, four fully-loaded handguns, 138 rounds of ammunition, and more than $21,000 in cash were seized. It is alleged that the operation was distributing more than $50,000 worth of narcotics per week or more than $2.6 million per year.
The alleged gang leaders are Iyesha Harrison, 25, of East Orange, and Tyesha Stephens, 30, of Newark. Jasmain Roe, 20, of Bloomfield, was also arrested, as was Gail Ramsammy, 34, of Montclair. Ramsammy, you may recall, got busted last October when Montclair police didn’t like the way her companion was driving and noticed neither driver nor passenger was wearing a seatbelt. Police said at the time that Ramsammy was trying to hide a bottle of Leak down her pants, resisted arrest and had to be subdued with a blast of pepper spray.
“With these arrests, we have dismantled a drug ring led by two female members of the Bloods that was dealing more than $50,000 a week in PCP, cocaine, crack cocaine and marijuana,” said Attorney General Anne Milgram. “While the threat posed to our communities by these criminal enterprises is the same whether they are led by men or women, it is disturbing that gangs have evolved to exert the same destructive control over the lives of young women that they have over young men, enlisting them in deadly violence.”
See our interview with Montclair Police Chief David Sabagh earlier today for more news on serious crime in Montclair.
what’s a bottle of Leak?
Leak is formaldehyde(sp).
Iyesha, Tyesah and “By-byesha”.
neither driver nor passenger was wearing a seatbelt.
The real reason for “Click it or Ticket?”
Decriminalize drugs and this all goes away.
“With these arrests, we have dismantled a drug ring led by two female members of the Bloods that was dealing more than $50,000 a week in PCP, cocaine, crack cocaine and marijuana…”
No. You haven’t. The drug sales on that section of South Orange Avenue were momentarily disrupted, that’s all. Things are back to normal and service continues. Within days, the alleged perpetrators will be back on the streets (pending outstanding criminal warrants) and running their networks again. As far as police and politicians are concerned, this problem needs only to be contained to certain areas where the residents either don’t complain or have no clout.
Fix health care. Fix unemployment. Fix poverty. Fix an international, multi-trillion dollar drug economy that has filled more Swiss bank accounts than Bernie Madoff could imagine in his wildest dreams. But arresting users, retailers, and their lower- to middle-managent won’t fix schmidt.
And, Mike, neither will decriminalization — one of the all time great myths of my fellow liberals. But that is an argument for another day.
Down at Port Elizabeth there’s still alot of room. Build like 5-8 Jails and put all the pushers and “retailers” of death in jail, so they can watch them. Just keep warehousing ‘em like chickens in chicken boxes in Lakewood.
Give them each 40 years in the slammer and you’ll cut crime in Essex county by 85%.
We have become a putty mushy wimpiee ultra super duper liberal society, and now honest law abiding citizens are constantly being robbed, having their cars stolen, homes broken into, and being shot.
retail store owners/workers facing guns, being beaten & robbed, and we – the honest jerks we are, have come to accept it! Phools we be!
Chicken warehouse jails will create building jobs, make excellen use of land and make Essex county safer for all the tax payers.
I offer NO sympathy – no liberal coddling – to these poisonious insects that earn their money by creating dependant addicts, robing, shooting, stabbing, beating to get 50 bucks for a “fix”
I know just the “fix” they need. Chicken warehousing in 4 or 6 new Jails down by the riverfront!!
Why do think that when you cross over into Orange or East Orange seemingly everyone is driving around all day in $90,000 customized cars? It’s Orange, not Livingston or Short Hills. It’s out in the open over there, yet little is done. Arrest, post bail, have a nice day….