More Arrests In Brick: 4 Nabbed On Drug Charges, Shoplifting

BRICK, NJ — Brick Township police are continuing to crack down on criminal activity in the township, arresting four people on drug and other charges at Wawa on Brick Boulevard near the south end of town.

Four people were arrested on Nov. 8 at the Wawa, 116 Brick Blvd., in the latest sting by the department's Selective Enforcement Team and Drug Enforcement Unit, Police Chief James Riccio said. Police attention was originally drawn there because of complaints from residents of an uptick in illegal and suspicious activity, Sgt. Jim Kelly said.

The four arrested were:

• Michael Butler, 36, of Brick, was charged with theft and burglary when officers saw him open the driver’s door of an unlocked unoccupied vehicle that was parked at the Wawa and remove property.
• Ryan Kemble, 37, of Berkeley Township, was charged with possession of marijuana, paraphernalia, and being under the influence of a controlled dangerous substance when officers saw him smoking marijuana while parked in the Wawa parking lot.
• Sean Provenzano, 34, of Wanaque, NJ, was charged with shoplifting when officers saw him inside the Wawa put items into his pockets and exit the store without paying.
• Jason Puzio, 51, of Brick, was charged with possession of a controlled dangerous substance, specifically oxycodone. Officers saw Puzio engaged in suspicious activity and pulled him over, Kelly said. Sgt. Paul Catalina and his K-9 partner Duke assisted in the investigation.

The arrests are the most recent in an ongoing crackdown by Brick police following the shootings Oct. 19 and Oct. 22 near the Briar Mills condominium complex and Brick Memorial High School.

The shootings, and the arrests of a 17-year-old and a 16-year-old on attempted murder charges, sparked an outcry from the community. Riccio added officers to the Selective Enforcement and narcotics teams and in the two days following the shooting near Brick Memorial, police arrested 19 people on various drug and other charges.

Last week, Brick police arrested five other people on drug charges and outstanding warrants at the Maple Leaf and Brick Gardens apartment complexes. Several vehicles were impounded at Maple Leaf as well, Kelly said.

The township was rated the safest city in the United States in 2006 by Morgan Quitno Press (which later merged with CQ Press), and that ranking is still cited by residents, frequently when they are frustrated about unlocked-car burglaries or drug arrests.

The ranking was mentioned after the killing of Mark Richard Austin on Sept. 7 and the Sept. 29 stabbing death of Dennis Power, but Riccio said in both cases, the accused killers were people they knew.

"The shooting on October 22 was perpetrated by two individuals who came into our town from other areas," Riccio said in a letter to the community in late October. "As expected the incidents caused fear and much concern. Some who hide behind social media posted rumors and misinformation. Others are depicting our town as out of control and crime-ridden. What I can tell you is this: That is far from the truth and quite honestly an unfair statement. Two isolated incidents do not and should not define our community."

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