NEWARK, NJ – A man from Essex County, New Jersey, today admitted to distributing more than 28 grams of cocaine base and conspiring with others, US attorney Rachael A. Honig announced.
Newark-born Nasir Williams, 24, pleaded guilty to grams or more of cocaine base via videoconference before U.S. District Court judge John Michael Vazquez.
According to the documents submitted in this case and the statements made in court:
Stephen Crane Village is a public housing complex in Newark on the Belleville, New Jersey border. From at least February 2019 to February 2020, law enforcement officers investigated individuals who controlled an open-air drug market operating there.
Through numerous controlled purchases of narcotics, consensual recorded phone calls and text messages, physical surveillance, and analysis of phone recordings, law enforcement officers found that numerous individuals, including Williams, had conspired and actually distributed narcotics, including heroin, fentanyl, and cocaine Cocaine base in and around Stephen Crane Village. On January 15, 2020, Nasir Williams sold approximately 31 grams of cocaine base to a person in Stephen Crane Village while they were being monitored by law enforcement.
The conspiracy and distribution costs for which Williams pleaded guilty include a statutory minimum of five years in prison, a maximum of 40 years in prison and a maximum fine of $ 5 million. The conviction is scheduled for September 21, 2021.
Acting US attorney Honig attributed special agents and task force officials to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, under the direction of Special Envoy Craig B. Kailimai. the Belleville Police Department, headed by Chief Mark Minichini; DEA special agents and task force officers under the direction of special agent in charge Susan A. Gibson in Newark; the Newark Police Department, headed by Brian O’Hara, director of public safety; the Essex County Attorney’s Office, under the direction of Acting Attorney Theodore N. Stephens II; and the Essex County Sheriff’s Office, headed by Sheriff Armando B. Fontoura, the investigation leading to today’s admission of guilt. He also thanked the US Marshals Service, Nutley Police Department, Bloomfield Police Department, West Orange Police Department, Verona Police Department, Orange Police Department, and the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office for their assistance in this case.
This investigation was part of the Newark Violent Crime Initiative (VCI), in which the U.S. Attorney’s Office worked with state, state, provincial, and local law enforcement agencies to investigate crime in Newark and surrounding cities. This case is also being conducted under the auspices of the Task Force on the Enforcement of Drugs in Organized Crime (OCDETF). The main mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt and dismantle the most serious drug, arms and money laundering organizations, as well as those primarily responsible for the country’s illicit drug supply.
The government is represented by US Assistant Attorneys Tracey Agnew and Cassye Cole of the Organized Crime and Gangs Division of the Newark US Attorney’s Department of Criminal Investigation.
