Bloomfield Cops Help Seize $250K Of Drugs From Alleged Latin King: Coke, Xanax, Ecstasy

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Essex County Sheriff’s officers – working with officers from the Bloomfield and Irvington police departments – seized almost $250,000 of illegal narcotics and prescription drugs from the home of an alleged Latin Kings gang member on Tuesday in Newark, authorities say.

According to the Essex County Sheriff’s Office, police also found two loaded shotguns during an afternoon raid of the Clifton Avenue home of Ramon “Tone” Vega, 57.

“After observing Vega interact with numerous passersby in front of his residence and then escort them down his driveway to the rear of his home the detectives from our Bureau of Narcotics believed they had witnessed drug transactions,” Sheriff Armando Fontoura said. “As they moved in to further investigate, the task force found Vega and his alleged accomplice, Adalberto ‘Pepsi’ Garcia, 36, also of Newark, inside a garden shed in the backyard.”

Vega then allegedly passed a black plastic bag to Garcia, who threw it into a nearby garbage can, authorities stated.

When officers recovered the plastic bag, they found “significant quantities” of cocaine, marijuana, Endocet, Xanax and ecstasy, authorities stated.

After searching the residence, officers found 1,800 grams of cocaine, almost 3,000 grams of marijuana, 1,850 ecstasy tablets, 25 grams of Oxycodone, 175 grams of Xanax and 21 grams of Tramadol, authorities said.

Police said that the home had surveillance cameras and contained “an incredibly wide variety of drug processing materials.” Authorities also found a sawed-off Savage Arms shotgun, a second fully loaded shotgun and thousands of rounds of ammunition in the residence.

Vega and Garcia were each charged with 32 criminal counts, including possession of CDS, possession of CDS with intent to distribute, possession of a defaced weapon, possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, conspiracy to violate New Jersey’s narcotics laws, possession of narcotics paraphernalia and maintaining a fortified structure.

A Newark municipal court judge set a bail of $850,000 cash bond only for Vega and Garcia, who were transported to the Essex County Jail.

File Photo: DEA, Wikimedia Commons