100K Doses Of Heroin Stopped From Hitting Union Streets: Police

UNION, NJ — A total of two kilograms of heroin, equivalent to more than 100,000 individual doses, was stopped by Union County authorities before hitting the streets, Union County Prosecutor Michael A. Monahan announced.

Authorities received a tip that a shipment of heroin was going to be traveling through Union County by way of Pennsylvania, according to Union County Assistant Prosecutor Michael Cleaver, who is prosecuting the case.

A 2004 Chevrolet Suburban, driving east on I-78 last Thursday, was spotted by police and tracked to the parking lot of a clothing store off Route 22 West in Union Township, Cleaver said.

In the lot Noel Ramiro Hernandez of Indianapolis, Indiana was arrested without incident, and a search of the SUV found two kilograms of heroin hidden in a speaker in the rear of the vehicle, Cleaver said.

Hernandez is charged with first-degree possession of heroin with the intent to distribute and third-degree heroin possession.

The joint investigation was conducted by members of the Prosecutor’s Office’s Narcotics Strike Force and the FBI-Newark Hybrid Task Force office assisted by the Union County Police Department.

Heroin appeared in the toxicology reports of 75 of the 126 people who died due to a drug overdose in Union County last year, or nearly three in every five.

Hernandez was subsequently transported to Union County Jail pending a first appearance. He faces 10 to 20 years in state prison on the first-degree criminal charges.

(Image via Shutterstock)

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