Five men from Jersey City have been charged with conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute narcotics, according to U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito.
Jerome Powell, 40, Raheem Rogers, 28, Karee Cunningham, 24, Rafiq Holmes, 40, and Matthew Collier, 36, are charged by criminal complaint with one count of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute both heroin and cocaine.
According to the documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
From about August 2019 through about Feb. 2, law enforcement saw Jerome Powell, Raheem Rogers, Karee Cunningham, Rafiq Holmes, and Matthew Collier working together to possess and distribute controlled substances on and around Bartholdi Avenue in Jersey City.
According to Brian Greene, a task force officer with the Drug Enforcement Administration, Powell was the alleged leader of the drug trafficking organization which law enforcement had been investigating since last August.
Powell would allegedly deliver drugs from a stash location in Jersey City to a residence on Bartholdi Avenue where they were stored and other members of the “drug trafficking organization” including Rogers, Cunningham, Holmes, and Collier would allegedly conduct hand to hand narcotics transactions outside the residence.
Since August, law enforcement set up surveillance and video recorded the alleged drug distributions, stopping several buyers after transactions occurred and recovering cocaine and heroin.
Law enforcement arrested both Rogers and Powell on Tuesday, Feb. 4, but the other men remain at large.
Rogers and Powell appeared on Feb. 4, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cathy L. Waldor in Newark federal court and both were detained.
The conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute heroin and cocaine charge has a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
U.S. Attorney Carpenito credited special agents and task force officers of the Drug Enforcement Administration, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Susan A. Gibson, New Jersey Division; and members of the Jersey City Police Department, under the direction of Chief of Police Michael Kelly, with the investigation leading to the charges.
This investigation was part of the Jersey City Violent Crime Initiative (VCI), where the U.S. Attorney’s Office has partnered with state, federal, county, and local law enforcement to investigate crime in Jersey City.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracey Agnew of the Organized Crime and Gangs Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Division in Newark.
The charges and allegations in the complaint are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
