Alleged Newark Gang Member Busted With Heroin Marked 'PANDA': Cops

NEWARK, NJ — Essex County police seized more than 1,100 decks of heroin marked “PANDA” in black ink, as well as guns and cash, during a bust involving an alleged Crips street gang leader in Newark on Monday evening.

According to the Essex County Sheriff’s Office, the bust unfolded when detectives from the Bureau of Narcotics staged a plainclothes surveillance operation near the intersection of South 7th Street and 11th Avenue in Newark as part of a “series of ongoing drug investigations in the area.”

During their surveillance, detectives saw West Rodriguez, 40, an alleged member of the Crips street gang and who is “known to officers from previous investigations,” exit his residence with a plastic bag and get into a 2016 Honda Accord with illegally tinted windows, authorities said.

Noting that Rodriguez didn’t have his seatbelt on, detectives immediately pulled him over, police said.

During the traffic stop, detectives allegedly saw Rodriguez throw the plastic bag onto the front passenger seat floorboard, spilling out 125 heroin-filled glassine envelopes stamped “PANDA” in black ink inside the bag, authorities stated.

Detectives also seized $383 in cash from Rodriguez during the encounter, police said.

According to the Essex County Sheriff’s Office, following the arrest, Rodriguez’s grandmother “consented to a search of their apartment,” during which police found a bookbag in his bedroom containing a loaded, .40 caliber Smith & Wesson handgun and an additional 1,058 decks of heroin marked “PANDA” and separated into 50-deck “bricks.”

Police estimated the value of the heroin at $125,000.

Authorities charged Rodriguez with unlawful possession of a weapon while committing a narcotics crime, possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, possession of a controlled dangerous substance, possession of CDS with intent to distribute and possession of CDS with intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. School.

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File Photo: DEA