Bergen Wholesaler Admits Buying And Selling Heroin Throughout North Jersey

BERGEN COUNTY, NJ — A man admitted in federal court Wednesday he purchased more than three kilograms of heroin and sold it to drug dealers in Paterson and Morris County.

Edwin Lopez, 31, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than one kilogram of heroin, said Acting U.S. Attorney William Fitzpatrick.

Lopez and seven others ran a drug trafficking operation and purchased wholesale quantities of heroin at several locations throughout the Bronx form June 2015 to May 2016, Fitzpatrick said.

The organization used couriers to deliver large quantities of heroin to mid-level drug dealers in Paterson; the heroin was either sold near Paterson or redistributed to street-level dealers in Morris County and Rockland County, New York, the attorney said.

Lopez operated out of Paterson. Carolina Almonte, 29, and Alfonso Alvarez Martinez, 26, both of Bronx, brought the heroin to Lopez and brought his payments to Juan Pablo Goris-Castellano, 26, also of Bronx, Fitzpatrick said.

Lopez admitted that when he was arrested last April he was giving a $13,500 payment to one of Goris-Castellano's couriers in exchange for 150 bricks of heroin, the attorney said.

Lopez faces a minimum of 10 years in prison, but could be sentenced to life, and fined as much as $10 million.

Sentencing is scheduled for July 11.

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