Living and dying on these Jersey streets

On a New Jersey Block, a Second Bright Student Is Mourned By FERNANDA SANTOS and NATE SCHWEBER

IRVINGTON, N.J. — Dolores Timmons watched as the woman who lived across the street paced the sidewalk for a good half hour under a scorching August heat, back and forth across the length of her front yard as if encased by invisible walls. They lived in similar brick and wood-frame homes here on a busy working-class block of 18th Avenue off the Garden State Parkway, but they had never spoken.

Another neighbor told Mrs. Timmons that the woman, Shalga Hightower, was mourning her 20-year-old daughter, one of three college students who had been shot dead in a Newark schoolyard a few days earlier. Mrs. Timmons walked across the street to introduce herself and offer condolences, bringing her grandson, Gary Farrar Jr., who was just a year older and also in college, studying graphic design at Rutgers.
Soon the two women struck up a neighborly acquaintanceship, making small talk when they ran into each other or waving from their stoops.
Mrs. Timmons, 64, had lived on the block for 24 years, and she occupied the first floor of her two-family house; upstairs were Gary and his parents, Gary Sr., a landscaper, and Betty Farrar, a nurse. Ms. Hightower, 47, a home-health aide supervisor, moved there last June with her three children; Iofemi, the oldest, was about to enter Delaware State University when she was killed.

Iofemi Hightower and Gary Farrar Jr., lived on the same street. Hightower was to enroll in Delaware State – oldest of three children.Shot and killed August, 2007 by strangers while chilling in a schoolyard with friends. Farrar, an only child, graduated from Rutgers. Shot and killed April 20, 2008 – in a driveby on his street (by a stranger) while walking friends to their car.

As the months passed, Mrs. Timmons noticed how Ms. Hightower would often wear a memorial T-shirt stamped with her daughter’s picture.
“When Iofemi died, I remember thinking how fortunate I was that my grandson was in college, away from these crazy streets out here,” Mrs. Timmons said on Monday. “But then he graduated and came back home and now he’s dead, too.”

For the families who live on this hilly stretch of 18th Avenue between Grove Street and Eastern Parkway, where Irvington juts into Newark, Ms. Hightower’s killing last summer — six suspects have been arrested — brought the violence that surrounds them frighteningly close. Losing Mr. Farrar barely nine months later —just four months after he had graduated from Rutgers and returned home — was something beyond.

* * *

“We made our sacrifices and just raised our son the best way that we could,” Mr. Farrar said on Monday.

Iofemi Hightower worked for Continental Airlines in Newark and planned to study business at Delaware State. Mr. Farrar had a degree in graphic design from Rutgers and was a waiter in Montclair as he pursued a job in his field. They were, by all accounts, exceptions — “good kids who stayed out of trouble and had hopes and dreams for the future,” as Mrs. Timmons put it.

Mr. Farrar, she said, recently bought a navy three-button suit to wear on job interviews. Now, she said, his parents plan to bury him in it.

Read The New York Times for the rest of this heartbreaking story

Foes Trash City Over Exporting

March 06, 1997

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN and JOEL SIEGEL, Daily News Staff Writers

Mayor Giuliani’s plan to close Fresh Kills landfill and export the city’s trash has prompted howls of outrage — and some eager welcomes — from activists and officials in communities that might get tons of banana peels and dirty diapers.

The city should solve its garbage problem at home and not foist its trash on communities such as Dunmore, Pa., whose landfill is being eyed by sanitation officials, said Dan Scheffler of the Sierra Club of Northeast Pennsylvania.

“It’s ironic that Mayor Giuliani doesn’t want guns imported to New York City, but he doesn’t mind exporting the city’s garbage,” said Lynn Landes of Zero Waste, a Pennsylvania environmental group.

But mayors in two nearby cities with huge trash-burning plants — Newark and Bridgeport — said they would accept New York’s garbage with open arms.

“It’s what the plant is here for,” said Chris Duby, spokesman for Mayor Joseph Ganim of Bridgeport, home to an incinerator whose owners have submitted a bid to burn tons of New York City trash.

The anger and anticipation came in reaction to the planned closing of the massive Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island by the end of 2001. The Sanitation Department recently announced it has received six bids from companies to ship garbage produced in the Bronx out of state for burning or dumping.

Three of the bids call for burning the garbage in Newark, Bridgeport or Hempstead, L.I. The others would dump the trash in Virginia or Pennsylvania landfills.

“We the people in the Ironbound will not benefit from New York City’s trash being burned here,” said June Kruszewski of the Ironbound Community Corp., a group based near Newark’s incinerator. “We don’t like it. We did not want the incinerator to begin with.”

Pennsylvania state Rep. David Argall said Schuylkill County residents feel they may be unfairly dumped on. “You can imagine the frustration my constituents feel,” he said.

But in Newark and Bridgeport, officials had the opposite reaction. Both cities receive huge payments for having the trash plants within their borders. And both signed agreements that all but bar them from restricting the flow of garbage from outside areas.

In addition, Newark and Essex County, N.J., officials said they need garbage for the American Ref-Fuel Co.

If the plant fails to receive enough garbage to operate at an efficient capacity, Essex County must dig into its own treasury to pay off investors who bought bonds that financed the plant, said Newark Business Manager Glenn Grant.

Original Story Date: 03/06/97

Normal City? Are You Nuts?

December 12, 1996

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN and JANE FURSE, Daily News Staff Writers

New York ain’t normal, according to a new book — whereas Orange County, Calif., is.

That’s Orange County as in Disneyland and the biggest municipal bankruptcy in history.

Whaddaya mean New York is the “most abnormal” of American cities?

Merely a statistical term, Places Rated Almanac co-author David Savageau hastened to explain yesterday.

“New York is top-notch in the arts, in higher education and in transportation, but bottom-of-the deck in crime, cost of living and jobs,” he said. “So you see, it’s either hot or cold — nothing in the middle.”

Take yer book and toss it, suggested Mayor Giuliani after he heard about this volume.

“They’re screwy,” said Giuliani, who disputed the MacMillan-published almanac’s charge that Atlanta, Detroit, Newark, St. Louis, New Orleans and Los Angeles are all safer than New York.

FBI numbers say otherwise, the mayor noted. “Big experts on crime, right, MacMillan,” Giuliani scoffed. “I will take this report and say it comes from amateurs. They don’t know what they are talking about.”

Giuliani’s opinions notwithstanding, said Savageau, Orange County really is the best of the 351 metropolitan areas surveyed by the almanac.

“The climate is good, it has a very rosy outlook for jobs and, because of the drop in housing prices, it’s more affordable,” he said. “It’s an amazing place.”

Joining Orange County on the book’s list of top 10 metropolitan areas are Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Wash.; Houston; Washington, D.C.; Phoenix-Mesa, Ariz.; Minneapolis-St. Paul; Atlanta; Tampa-St.-Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla.; San Diego, and Philadelphia.

As for life here in abnormal New York City, Long Islander Pamela Barrow was feeling just fine as she got off the train at madhouse Penn Station yesterday.

“Personally, I come here to feel normal again,” she said.

Original Story Date: 12/12/96

Rudy Hopes O’C Stays in Pulpit

November 11, 1996

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN and LAWRENCE GOODMAN, Daily News Staff Writers

Mayor Giuliani said yesterday he would like Cardinal O’Connor to stick around awhile longer — and refused to place bets on who would be the next to lead the Archdiocese of New York.

“I better not start rating the possible successor to Cardinal O’Connor,” Giuliani said. “Cardinal O’Connor, hopefully, will continue to be with us for a long time. Maybe there’ll be an extension again of his term.”

O’Connor, 77, handed in his retirement papers to Pope John Paul almost two years ago but was told to stay put.

Yesterday’s Daily News reported that O’Connor (left) will probably stay on the job until Easter, and four possible successors are being considered: Bishop Henry Mansell of Buffalo, Bishop Edwin O’Brien of St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Newark and Bishop James McHugh of Camden, N.J.

The faithful at Sunday Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral had mixed reactions to O’Connor’s leaving.

Some demanded the Vatican find a successor quickly, and many said they were looking for someone with more liberal positions than O’Connor has.

“It’s time to change,” said Dorothy Chiozzi, 72, who frequently comes in from Medford, Mass., to attend services at the cathedral. “Women should be allowed to be priests. We need someone who is a little more liberal.”

O’Connor was in Rome yesterday attending celebrations of the Pope’s 50th anniversary as a priest and was unavailable for comment.

The archdiocese’s spokesman, Joseph Zwilling, said any discussion of a successor is premature.

“Cardinal O’Connor is the archbishop of New York,” Zwilling said. “He will remain the archbishop until he dies or the Pope tells him otherwise. It’s a waste of time for all this attention to be paid to something that might not happen for several more years.”

Henry Kielkucki, president of the teachers union at the archdiocese’s schools, said O’Connor has failed to connect with Catholic youth.

“O’Connor is far too conservative,” Kielkucki said. “The Church has to appeal more to young people. The kids, especially girls, are not really in tune to religion. The Church has turned its back on women.”

But Lisa Marrero, 29, a doctor from Manhattan, said she’ll be sorry to see O’Connor leave.

“He’s never afraid to defend Catholic teaching and he’s never afraid to apologize,” she said. “Nobody will ever replace him in my heart. I’ve grown up with him.”

Original Story Date: 11/11/96

3 NEWARK BOYS HELD IN CAR THEFTS AT MALLS; APPREHENDED AFTER CHASE IN TEANECK

Byline: By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, December 28, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A02

Three Newark youths drove a stolen car to Bergen Mall on Thursday, abandoned it in favor of two other cars, and were arrested when the cars collided in Teaneck after a chase on Route 4, police said.

The boys 15, 16, and 17 years old were charged with receiving stolen property and eluding police and were being held Friday in the Bergen County Juvenile Detention Center.

“It’s a gang,” Hackensack Deputy Police Chief John Aletta said. “Every year we get this. After questioning by youth officers, it was learned that they arrived at the mall together in a car stolen from Linden, which they left, and stole two other ones.”

About 2:20 p.m. Thursday, Hackensack Police Officer Mart Kobin heard a report of a theft of a 1990 Pontiac and chased a car matching that description on Route 4, Aletta said.

The car exited Route 4 at Queen Anne Road in Teaneck, where it crashed into a 1989 Chevrolet Cavalier, which was later determined to have been stolen from the Toys “R” Us parking lot adjacent to the Bergen Mall parking lot, where the Pontiac was stolen, he said.

The 17-year-old driver of the Pontiac and the two youths in the Cavalier abandoned the cars and fled on foot, Aletta said. They were arrested after a foot chase that ended on Minelli Place and Allan Court.

AIRPORT DRUG BUST SETS RECORD 40 POUNDS OF HEROIN SEIZED

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, August 24, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

Customs agents arrested two sisters arriving at Newark Airport from Sweden on Thursday with about 40 pounds of heroin, worth $18 million on the street, authorities said Friday.
“This is the largest heroin seizure at Newark International Airport,” said Robert Van Etten, special agent in charge for the U.S. Customs Service.
The previous largest shipment seized at the airport was 11.7 pounds on Oct. 11, 1990, Van Etten said. “As the number of international flights at Newark Airport increases, U.S. Customs has seen an increase in narcotics smuggling at Newark,” he added.
Judy Merle Corbin, 42, of Atlanta and her sister, Sandra Sue Corbin, 41, of Kansas City, Mo., were arrested about 6:30 p.m. Thursday in possession of a suitcase and roller bag that had secret compartments and false bottoms filled with heroin, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Ana T. Escobar.
Van Etten said the women were couriers for a Nigerian heroin-smuggling organization. The organization shipped the heroin from Thailand to Sweden, then employed the women to bring it into the United States, he said.
Van Etten declined to disclose what led Customs to the women or the circumstances of the arrest. He did say that the women had lengthy criminal records.
They were charged with importing heroin and were being held without bail in the custody of U.S. marshals, Escobar said.

Keywords: NEWARK; AVIATION; DRUG; CRIME; RECORD

THEIR FEAR OF FLYING OVERCOME BY WRECK

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, August 1, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | One Star | NEWS | Page A10

Richard Umbrino Jr. and Arthur Colombino took the train back from a Florida vacation because they were afraid to fly.
But after their experiences aboard the ill-fated Amtrak Silver Star, which they boarded in Winter Haven, Fla., early Wednesday, the Point Pleasant men said they won’t be getting on a train again anytime soon.
Umbrino, 20, and Colombino, 19, described several minutes of terror and mayhem aboard the train that crashed in Camden, S.C., killing at least seven aboard and injuring dozens more.
After landing Wednesday evening at Newark International Airport with four other survivors, Umbrino said one of the men killed was just ahead of him on the train.
“His leg was twisted around, he was bleeding from his head and chest, and I think his lungs were punctured,” said the junior at Kean College in Union.
The survivors also questioned claims by authorities that the train was going below the 79 mph speed limit before it crashed, saying that few aboard could sleep because it was moving so fast.
The train’s lights were knocked out almost immediately after the crash, Colombino said, and people were flung about the car as it skidded for a long distance on its side. Glass from shattered windows flew in all directions.
The two men, neither of whom was hurt, said a woman immediately behind them was traveling with two children.
“Everybody was screaming,” Umbrino said. “She was screaming, `Hold my hand. . . . You have to take care of my baby.”
Martin and Diana Santos of the Bronx and their two children also arrived in Newark on Wednesday. They said a local minister gave them a ride from the crash site to the airport in Columbia, S.C.
“At the point of impact, I only thought of running to my children and then off the train,” said Mrs. Santos, 31, a social worker. “It was terrifying.
“You know how you get scared when a car suddenly brakes?” she continued. “This was a hundred times worse.”
Reaching for luggage when the crash occurred, Martin Santos was tossed inside the car and suffered a sprained right ankle. He was on crutches Wednesday evening.
The Santoses had been at Disney World for a long-planned vacation and caught the train in Orlando. They said the train was running late and appeared to be moving at high speeds.
“The train was just flying,” Santos said. “I’m not sure what somebody was doing back there. I couldn’t sleep, it was going so fast.”
Umbrino described the same feeling.
“The train was bouncing so much that’s why I woke up,” he said.
Never on an airplane before Wednesday, Umbrino said flying would probably be his mode of long-distance travel from now on.
“I’m not going to be traveling on trains anymore,” he said. “Today was my first flight, and I liked it.”
Record Staff Writer John Mooney contributed to this article.

Keywords: NEWARK; FLORIDA; RAILROAD; ACCIDENT; SOUTH CAROLINA; DEATH; DISASTER; VICTIM

Caption: PHOTO – RIC FRANCIS / THE RECORD – Richard Umbrino Jr., 20, left, and Arthur Colombino, 19, were among six survivors to arrive at Newark Airport on Wednesday.

Notes: 1 of 2 versions

ANGRY N.J. SURVIVOR CITES DELAY IN RESCUE

By Elizabeth Auster and Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writers | Thursday, August 1, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page A10

“You have no idea how horrifying this has been.”
It was 9 p.m., 16 hours after the disaster. But Peter Cepeda, pacing agitatedly in Washington’s Union Station amid busloads of passengers who had just arrived from South Carolina, still could barely control his rage.
Yes, he was alive and bound for his home in Newark. But he makes his living in New Jersey as a doctor, and he had lost a patient Wednesday a man he didn’t know until Amtrak’s Silver Star derailed, and Cepeda, who had been in the third car from the rear, went looking for casualties in the next car.
The man’s arm and leg had been severed, Cepeda said, and he was bleeding profusely from multiple lacerations. Cepeda and another passenger, Robert Moore of Miami, said they tried tourniquets to stanch the blood. They tried mouth-to-mouth resuscitation when the man periodically lost consciousness.
But at least an hour passed, Cepeda said, before he saw an ambulance. By the time help arrived, the man was gone, Cepeda and Moore said.
“There was nothing we could do,” said Cepeda. “It was a real traumatic experience.”
Cepeda was among several New Jersey residents on the Amtrak line who described the terror and mayhem that erupted when the train bound for New York derailed, killing at least seven passengers and injuring dozens of others.
Richard Umbrino Jr. and Arthur Colombino, both of Point Pleasant, took the train back from a Florida vacation because they were afraid to fly.
After landing Wednesday evening at Newark International Airport with four other survivors, the two men described bodies and glass flying about the train as it crashed. Umbrino said one of the men killed was seated just ahead of him.
“His leg was twisted around, he was bleeding from his head and chest, and I think his lungs were punctured,” said Umbrino, a 20-year-old junior at Kean College in Union.
Umbrino and other survivors contested claims that the train was below the 79 mph speed limit, saying that few on board could sleep because the train was moving so fast.
“The train was bouncing so much that’s why I woke up,” he said.
Cepeda, an obstetrician-gynecologist who is planning to move to Florida shortly, was not in the mood to be passive Wednesday night. While other weary survivors boarded trains in Washington to head north, he flatly refused, insisting that Amtrak find him another way of getting home.
“If they don’t put me on a plane I’ll find my own,” he insisted.
Cepeda was not the only survivor frightened of getting back on a train.
Thirteen-year-old Kim Williams of Brigantine, who was returning from a visit to relatives in Florida and traveling with her aunt, was flushed and clearly nervous as she followed directions from Amtrak personnel guiding her to a train headed north.
“It was very scary and I don’t know if it’s going to happen again,” she said. “I haven’t been able to eat all day because I’m afraid it’s going to happen again.”
Never on an airplane before Wednesday, Umbrino said flying would probably be his mode of long-distance travel from now on.
“I’m not going to be traveling on trains anymore,” he said. “Today was my first flight, and I liked it.”
Record Staff Writer John Mooney contributed to this article.

Keywords: NEW JERSEY; RAILROAD; SOUTH CAROLINA; ACCIDENT; DEATH; DISASTER; NEWARK; VICTIM; FLORIDA

Caption: PHOTO – RIC FRANCIS / THE RECORD – Richard Umbrino Jr., 20, left, and Arthur Colombino, 19, were among six survivors to arrive at Newark Airport on Wednesday.

TONS CONFISCATED, 8 ARRESTED; NEW JERSEY’S BIGGEST DRUG BUST

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, June 1, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Two Star B | NEWS | Page A01

In what is being called New Jersey’s largest drug haul ever, undercover U.S. Customs Service agents Friday seized 4,700 pounds of cocaine, 7,000 pounds of marijuana, and $995,000 in cash, and arrested eight men connected to the shipment, officials said.
“New Jersey, unfortunately, is becoming a central transit place for heroin, cocaine, and other forms of narcotics,” said Robert van Etten, special customs agent in charge.
Friday’s arrests culminated a four-month investigation in which customs agents infiltrated a New York metropolitan area drug-smuggling organization that was supplied by the Cali drug cartel in Colombia, Van Etten said. The marijuana was to be delivered to Illinois and Indiana, he added.
The cocaine had a wholesale value of $58.2 million, and the marijuana was valued at $11.2 million wholesale, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Stuart Rabner.
Van Etten said a private transport plane brought the drugs first to Miami, then to Newark International Airport about a week ago. The drugs were transferred to a rented truck, which was seized by agents in Newark Friday.
Among those arrested were North Jersey residents Enidio Abreu, 42, of 310 Warwick Ave., Teaneck, and Julio Menendez, 29, of 1614 83rd St., North Bergen.
The eight were charged with conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine and marijuana. They were being held without bail in the Union County Jail.

Keywords: DRUG; NEWARK; PROBE; SHIP; NEW JERSEY; SMUGGLING

Caption: COLOR PHOTO – BB BRUSH / THE RECORD – Workers in Newark unloading cocaine and marijuana seized Friday after a four-month investigation.

DEADLY BRAND OF HEROIN CLAIMS 3 N.J. ADDICTS

By David Gibson and Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writers | Sunday, February 3, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A01

Two drug addicts in Paterson and one in Newark died Saturday after using deadly heroin from the Bronx that police say has killed six people in the tri-state area and hospitalized at least 100 others within hours of hitting the streets.
Authorities were unsure late Saturday if the deaths were caused by “hotshots” powerful doses of uncut heroin or if the narcotic was laced with some poisonous material.
New York City police cruised drug-infested areas Saturday announcing the danger over bullhorns and searched abandoned tenements, seeking to spread the warning to homeless addicts. Police in Hartford, Conn., site of one fatal overdose, did the same.
But Paterson and Newark officials said they had no similar plans.
“The word is pretty much out on the street,” said Paterson Police Chief Richard W. Munsey. “Our detectives went out early this morning. “
Paterson police sources said one arrest had been made in an ongoing investigation aimed at tracking down the source of the lethal heroin.
“We’re compiling a lot of information and watching a couple of places. Hopefully we’ll get lucky,” said one detective, who added that New York police were assisting on the case.
Paterson Mayor William J. Pascrell Jr. took a hard line on warning addicts, characterizing the loudspeaker idea as “ludicrous. “
“When you play with poison, you’re going to die with poison, one way or another,” said Pascrell. The mayor acknowledged his attitude may be viewed as harsh, but said it was for the addicts own good: “I hope this puts fear into the drug users. There’s a lesson to be learned from this. “
Lt. Dan Collins of the Newark police said no efforts were being made to notify drug users there of the danger.
“We don’t go around broadcasting,” said one Newark police officer who declined to give his name. “When we go to shooting galleries, we lock them up.”
Six men and a woman were taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Paterson on Saturday suffering from drug overdoses, said spokeswoman Barbara Hopp. Two men were pronounced dead on arrival, three patients were treated and released, and two were reported in stable condition, she said. Officials would not identify the victims.
Pascrell and Munsey said word-of-mouth warnings would likely be sufficient to scare off Paterson’s heroin users because the overdoses, which started occurring about 4 a.m. Saturday, were confined to a small section of the city. They declined to identify the area.
New York officials said the heroin in question was bought after 4 p.m. Friday near 138th Street and Brook Avenue in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx. It was distributed quickly, they said, citing as evidence the death in Hartford.
Two fatalities were reported in New York, and at least 100 people have been hospitalized, including 21 overdose cases in Newark and four in Irvington. Hartford hospitals reported 33 overdoses.
New York Health Department officials said preliminary tests indicated the heroin was possibly tainted with methyl fentanyl, which can increase the potency of the drug by “a factor of 27. ” That overwhelms receptors in the brain, they said, with resulting coma or respiratory arrest. The condition can be treated if caught in time, they added.
In Paterson, Munsey said death from an overdose of that magnitude can occur in minutes. “They go into a type of seizure and don’t come out. They go comatose and die very quickly,” he said.
The chief added that the heroin used Saturday must have been extremely potent.
“These [victims] are mainliners,” Munsey said. “If they’re dying from shooting up, it’s got to be a good load. With big-time users, it takes an awful lot. “
The heroin was being sold under the brand name “Tango and Cash,” after the movie in which Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell portray police officers fighting powerful drug lords.
“The brand name is nothing but a stamp that they put on a glassine envelope,” said Victor M. Pedalino, special agent with the Newark office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. “They come up with new ones as soon as the names become familiar. “
Pedalino said that about three years ago, particularly potent brands of heroin called “China White” and “P-Dope,” which stood for pure dope, surfaced in New Jersey, and that there was an increase of overdose death reported during that time. That heroin was 70 percent to 85 percent pure.
Renee Sacerdote, a drug counselor at Eva’s Halfway House in Paterson, said addicts scared by the heroin could rely on alcohol or pills to overcome withdrawal pains.
She said Eva’s beds are full and there is a 150-person waiting list for the shelter’s detoxification services, but she said local hospitals, a Main Street methadone clinic, and the Straight and Narrow rehabilitation program could accommodate addicts seeking treatment.
Authorities said the speed with which the heroin reached outlying cities in Connecticut and New Jersey was grim testimony to the efficiency of the narcotics network, which police constantly attempt to interrupt.
Local authorities have long recognized that the majority of Paterson’s illegal drug supply originates in New York, less than a half-hour away on Route 80, and Pascrell said the latest deaths highlight his city’s role as a casualty rather than a protagonist in the drug war.
“Here, we arrest nickel-and-dime dealers,” Pascrell said. “While they’re certainly dangerous, they never get the big guys who pull the strings out of New York.”
Local and federal drug enforcement experts agreed that the area has seen a recent growth in the use of heroin, most of which comes from Southeast Asia. Pedalino said the New Jersey office “has increased its heroin investigation probably by 30 or 40 percent in the past few years.”
New York police, who are coordinating the investigation, asked those with information about who sold the drug to call a confidential, 24-hour hot line: 1-(212) 583-0144.

Keywords: DRUG; ABUSE; PATERSON; NEWARK; NEW YORK CITY