Twice-Charged Toms River Heroin Dealer Gets 6-Month Rehab Sentence, No Jail: Police

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A Toms River man who was arrested twice last year on heroin distribution charges after police found a combined 4,700 heroin doses in his possession has been sentenced to six months in rehab and five years of probation, police said Tuesday.

Gary Fox, 30, of Old Street in Toms River, was arrested first in May 2016 after a monthlong investigation by the Toms River Police Department's Special Enforcement Team into heroin distribution in the area led them to Fox, police spokesman Ralph Stocco said Tuesday.

Fox had 80 wax folds of heroin and $740 in cash on him at the time, Stocco said. A search of a storage unit belonging to Fox led to the seizure of 83 bricks of heroin, or 4,150 individual doses, which had a street value of approximately $25,000, he said.

In July, while out on bail in connection with the May arrest, Fox was arrested again by the SET team, Stocco said. A search warrant executed at Fox's home led to the seizure of about 540 wax folds of heroin, more than a pound and a half of marijuana, $1,984 in cash, prescription medications, a scale and packaging materials used to distribute narcotics, Stocco said.

Fox was charged with distributing heroin, possession of heroin and possession of over one half ounce of heroin after the May arrest, and with possession of heroin, possession of heroin with the intent to distribute, possession of over 50 grams of marijuana, possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute, possession of alprazolam, possession of suboxone, and possession of drug paraphernalia, Stocco said.

Fox received a sentence of six months in an alcohol and drug rehabilitation facility and five years of probation. If he fails to meet the conditions of the program, he faces 10 years in prison, according to the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.

Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office, said the prosecutor cannot prevent a defendant from applying to drug court, which is a state program, not one operated by the prosecutor's office.

"It is their legal right. His application met all the legal requirements and he received admission to the program," Della Fave said. "We have no control over the process."

NJ1015.com reported this was not Fox's first drug rehab sentence; the report said he received the same sentence in 2009 for arrests in 2006 and 2007 on charges of possession of cocaine and Percocet.

Before his sentence this month, Fox had spent 168 days awaiting trial, NJ1015.com reported.

Gary Fox photo via Ocean County Corrections Department