JERSEY CITY, N.J. — The alleged kingpin of the heroin trade at Jersey City’s Salem Lafayette housing complex and his 15-year-old accomplice were arrested Tuesday and charged with numerous drug counts, police said yesterday.
Derrick Eason, 20, of Monticello Avenue, and the 15-year-old were arrested after a tip, according to reports.
After a search, police found 350 bags of suspected heroin, wrapped in newspaper, with the words “Money in the Bank” stamped on it, reports said. Police also found over $2,000 in Eason’s pocket, the report said.
According to police, two officers with the Anti-Gang Unit were making the rounds at the complex, following a tip that Eason was using the 15-year-old to transport drugs.
The cops were in an unmarked car, said the report, when they saw the younger boy walk up to the driver’s side of a gray Ford Thunderbird and remove a long package wrapped in newspaper, suspected of being a “brick” of heroin, from his shirt. The bricks of heroin were found in this car, cops said.
When the unmarked cop car pulled up, the boy began to walk away, said the report. After identifying themselves, the two officers ordered him to stop but he ran, reports said.
The officers caught up with him as he entered one of the buildings and he tried to discard two large packets of suspected heroin from his shorts, police said. They chased him to a woman’s apartment, police said.
While the 15-year-old was being arrested, Eason slipped into the apartment through a rear door, the report said. Eason demanded to know why the younger boy was being arrested and then he, too, was arrested and charged with obstruction, police said.
In addition to heroin, after the apartment was searched, three large plastic bags containing a total of 102 little bags of suspected marijuana and $462 cash were found, according to the report. The 15-year-old also had a small bag of marijuana and $225 in his pockets, the report said.
Eason told police that all of the marijuana and money inside of the house only belonged to him, though he refused to put the confession in formal writing or a videotape, the report said.