Brick Fugitive Convicted Of Illegally Growing Marijuana Sentenced

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A Brick Township man convicted of illegally growing marijuana at a South Jersey site while he was a fugitive has been sentenced to prison, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said Monday.

Jason A. Bacon, 43, was sentenced Friday to 32 years in prison with 12 years of parole ineligibility by Superior Court Judge Guy P. Ryan, the prosecutor's office said.

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Bacon was tried and convicted in absentia in 2025 before Ryan on charges from an investigation that began in December 2017 into a large greenhouse in Clayton, Gloucester County, that had been built behind a vacant house on Delsea Drive, authorities said.

Bacon had been arrested in April 2019 but ordered released under New Jersey bail reform, the prosecutor's office said. Read more: Ocean County Pair Charged With Marijuana Manufacture: Prosecutor

He disappeared and failed to show up for his trial when it started Jan. 14, 2025, the prosecutor's office said.

Investigators looking into a property in Clayton, Gloucester County, that was using large amounts of water and electricity while the house was vacant discovered a large greenhouse. They also learned it had received large freight deliveries of material associated with illegally growing marijuana, the prosecutor's office said.

The property was owned by Bacon, who lived in Brick, the prosecutor's office said.

Search warrants executed on April 26, 2018, at the Clayton property and at Bacon's home in Brick led to the seizure of more than 25 pounds of marijuana, more than 5 pounds of hashish and hashish products, marijuana plants, paraphernalia associated with the cultivation of marijuana, and a loaded .25-caliber handgun, authorities said.

Investigators reviewing Bacon’s bank records learned he had deposited in excess of $400,000 from illegal narcotics sales into his bank account between 2013 and 2018 and never paid income tax on the money, prosecutors said.

Bacon was convicted on Jan. 30, 2025 of two counts of maintaining a controlled dangerous substance facility, possession of more than 25 pounds of marijuana with intent to distribute, possession of more than 5 pounds of hashish with intent to distribute, possession of more than 5 pounds but less than 25 pounds of marijuana with intent to distribute, two counts of possession of more than 50 grams of marijuana, possession of more than 5 grams of hashish, possession of cocaine, possession of a firearm during a controlled dangerous substance offense, financial facilitation, and four counts of failure to file income tax returns and pay income tax, the prosecutor's office said.

Bacon was arrested by U.S. Marshals in Mexico on Jan. 15 and extradicted to New Jersey on Feb. 4, and has been held in the Ocean County Jail since then. The prosecutor's office has not said how authorities located him.

Ryan sentenced Bacon on Friday to 16 years in prison with eight years of parole ineligibility for maintaining a controlled dangerous substance facility; eight years with four years of parole ineligibility for possession of a firearm during a controlled dangerous substance offense, and eight years in prison for financial facilitation.

Those sentences will run consecutively.

Additionally, Bacon was also sentenced to concurrent terms in prison for possession of marijuana, possession of hashish, possession with intent to distribute marijuana, possession with intent to distribute hashish and failure to file and pay income tax.