BLEAK ASSESSMENT OF WAR ON DRUGS; Torricelli Issues Report

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, April 5, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | A34

Although winnable, the war on drugs is now being lost, at least on the international front.

That was the conclusion of Rep. Robert G. Torricelli, D-Englewood, in a status report he gave to Bergen County law enforcement officials in Hackensack on Friday. In a 30-minute briefing that had little good news, he offered a bleak assessment of the struggle.

“The battle against the growers is largely lost,” said Torricelli, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Western Hemisphere affairs. “While we’ve dramatically increased federal spending, the actual coca production rate has increased 400 percent.”

The U.S. government has spent almost $12 billion since 1982 to fight drugs, he said.

However, much of that ended up in the pockets of narcotics traffickers, who then used the money to buy protection from Andean nations law enforcement agencies charged with halting their illegal trade, Torricelli added.

He called for a renewed effort against drugs on the home front, in “our families, schools, and communities, and not in the jungle of Peru.”

“We’ve lost battles, but there is no reason not win the war,” he said.

Fort Lee Police Chief John Orso, one of about 70 police chiefs, narcotics officers, and county officials present, cited the success of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program in the borough’s public schools. He said that effort should be intensified as a way to cut down on the demand for drugs.

Paramus Police Chief Joseph Delaney recalled testifying before a U.S. Senate committee in 1975, when the war on drugs was focused on the heroin trade in Turkey. The problem then, as now, was that communities and local law enforcement agencies were starved of resources to wage a credible war.

Echoing the sentiment of many in the audience, Delaney asked Torricelli what he had to offer them in terms of additional resources.

A crime bill passed recently by the House of Representatives and now being considered by the Senate contains $3 billion for local programs, Torricelli said. However, he said, it contains a provision calling for a seven-day waiting period to purchase guns.

President Bush has promised to veto legislation containing gun-control measures, he said.

Englewood Police Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley asked Torricelli about incentives to encourage law enforcement officers and other public employees to live in the communities in which they work. City neighborhoods could be stabilized by the presence of these officers, he said.

One of the reasons many give for not living in the community is the high cost of housing, Tinsley added. Bergen County Executive William “Pat” Schuber answered that the county Housing Authority is considering a proposal to aid public employees, especially law enforcement workers, with low-interest loans and mortgages.

Caption: PHOTO – Rep. Robert G. Torricelli, D-Englewood, speaking Friday in Hackensack at a briefing on the war on drugs. AL PAGLIONE / THE RECORD –

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.

DRUG CACHE USED TO LURE TRAFFICKING SUSPECTS

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Wednesday, October 31, 1990

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

Federal agents in Newark used a cache of 11 pounds of pure heroin seized recently from a Saudi courier at Newark International Airport the largest haul of heroin imported through the airport to track down and arrest five persons believed to be major drug traffickers.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Fernandez said the monthlong investigation, dubbed “Operation Desert Horse” because of its Lebanon distribution base, eventually yielded 9 more pounds of heroin and $162,000 in cash.

The Drug Enforcement Administration estimates the 20 pounds of heroin would be worth more than $10 million on the street after its purity was diluted.

“This is a tremendous, a staggering amount of heroin. This will have a noticeable impact on the availability of heroin on the street,” Fernandez said.
“The defendants here were at the very source of the stream. They were at the top of the pyramid because they were the ones receiving this very pure heroin from the courier.”

Facing charges of conspiracy to import and distribute heroin are Walid El-Homeidi of Saudi Arabia; Samir Tehfe, a Lebanese national who lives in Guttenberg; Mohammed Hamye, also a Lebanese national, of Long Island; Benny Rodriguez of North Bergen; and Carlos Solis Payano and Angel Payano, both citizens of the Dominican Republic and residents of New York City.

All the defendants, now being held in the Union County Jail, face maximum life sentences and $4 million fines, Fernandez said. U.S. District Judge H. Lee Sarokin on Monday ordered the men held without bail pending trial.

Josephine Chouberrian, 38, and her 26-year-old sister, Jacqueline Minassian, of Watertown, Mass., in whose home the additional nine pounds of heroin was seized, and Fouad Gharib, a Canadian citizen, are due to be transferred to New Jersey to face charges in connection with the case, Fernandez said.

U.S. Customs and DEA agents in Newark began investigating on Oct. 7, after inspectors noticed that the sides of a suitcase carried by El-Homeidi, 28, were unusually thick, said Robert Van Etten, Customs special agent in charge.

An examination of the suitcase uncovered about 11 pounds of packaged heroin secreted in its sides, Van Etten said.

After El-Homeidi’s arrest on Oct. 7, Customs and DEA agents lured Tehfe, 31, and Rodriquez, 52, to a hotel in Newark to pick up the heroin on Oct. 13, when they were arrested. Fernandez declined to say how officials were led to Hamye and the Payano brothers.

Caption: PHOTO – JOHN DECKER / THE RECORD – Customs agents, from left, Robert E. Van Etten, Mark Shanley, and Kathleen Haage at Newark International Airport with nearly $170,000 in cash and 11 pounds of heroin, the largest-ever drug seizure at the airport.