Two people were recently sentenced after they admitted to attempting to bring a large amount of heroin into Northern State Prison in Newark, NJ.
The suspects, a 40-year-old Jersey City resident and a 60-year-old Newark inmate, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute heroin.
According to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, one of the suspects was captured on video earlier this year as he walked into the parking lot of a Newark business to meet with an undercover investigator. The suspect was reportedly under the impression that the officer was a drug dealer.
The suspect allegedly arranged for the undercover officer to bring 50 decks of heroin into Northern State Prison. According to prosecutors, the heroin was supposed to be delivered to the other suspect, who is an inmate at the prison.
The suspect accused of arranging the drug deal was a nurse at Rutgers University. As a result of his guilty plea in the case, he has been barred from public employment and had to resign his position at the university. Prosecutors believe that the suspect might have come into contact with the inmate because the school had a contract to provide nursing services to the prison.
The other suspect, who is already serving a 99-year sentence for committing a murder in Middlesex County, had another 3 years added to his sentence. The suspect was originally supposed to be eligible for parole in 2017, but this recent drug conviction could change that.
For more information, check out the NJ.com article entitled “Rutgers Nurse, Inmate Sentenced for Attempting to Deliver Heroin to Prison.”