Narcotics officers in New Jersey busted 14 people and seized more than 8,000 bags of heroin in what investigators say was a family-run distribution ring, authorities said Saturday.
The eight-month investigation, dubbed "Operation Family Tides" focused on the Bayshore area of Monmouth County and involved multiple county and local invesitgators, said Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni in announcing the arrests.
Gramiccioni said the ring sold heroin almost daily from houses and apartments in Monmouth and Middlesex counties.
In addition to more than 8,000 bags of heroin packaged for sale, investigators seized four ounces of raw heroin, five ounces of cocaine and three cars that were used to distribute the drugs.
Charged with a slate of drug trafficking charges are Gregory Moore, 33, Terrence Brown,, 37, Edward Gutridge, 29, all of Aberdeen, and Halee Wing, 36, or East Orange, prosecutors said. The four men were leaders of the ring, they said.
Brown, Gutridge and Wing were being held on $1 million bail. Moore remains at large, prosecutors said.
Officials say several of those implicated in the drug ring were members of the same family.
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"This is a significant disruption of a heroin trafficking ring that targeted the Bayshore region," Gramiccioni said.
