GREENWICH TOWNSHIP, NJ (Warren County) – One truck driver was sentenced and the other pled guilty in Warren County Superior court on Friday after they were both arrested in 2016 for hauling huge amounts of drugs in Warren County.
Oscar Franco, 59, of Chula Vista, CA, was sentenced to 10 years in state prison, including three years of parole ineligibility. Franco pleaded guilty on March 2 to first-degree possession of heroin with intent to distribute.
Franco was arrested on Aug. 14, 2016 by a member of the State Police Mobile Safe Freight Unit who stopped his tractor-trailer on Interstate 78 in Greenwich Township to conduct a routine commercial inspection. Through an investigation, roughly 36 kilos of heroin was discovered. Franco has been held in the Warren County Jail since his arrest in lieu of $200,000 bail.
“The 36 kilos of heroin that Franco transported into New Jersey could have been cut, packaged and sold on the street for well over $10 million,” said Attorney General Porrino. “Every time we put a heroin trafficker like Franco in prison, we cut off a major supply line for this lucrative criminal market and save lives that otherwise would fall victim to his poison.”
“As a major transporter of heroin, Franco not only was driving addiction in New Jersey, he also was fueling the gun violence that accompanies street-level drug dealing,” said Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice. “We’ll continue to work with the New Jersey State Police and our law enforcement partners at all levels to ensure that heroin suppliers like Franco face lengthy prison terms.”
“Franco’s cache of heroin amounted to more than 1.5 million individual doses never hitting the streets,” said Colonel Rick Fuentes, Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police. “Based on the large quantity of heroin seized and the resulting disruption of a major narcotic supply line, Trooper Dolinsky in all likelihood saved a life or at the very least prevented someone from becoming an addict.”
Henry A. Cruz Ventura, 40, of Los Angeles, CA, pleaded guilty to first-degree possession of heroin with intent to distribute. Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that Ventura be sentenced to 10 years in state prison. Ventura has been held in the Warren County Jail since his arrest on Aug. 23, 2016, with bail set at $250,000. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 23.
The seizure by the New Jersey State Police Mobile Safe Freight Unit ranks as one of the largest seizures of heroin by law enforcement in U.S. history.
Ventura was arrested on Aug. 23, 2016, after a member of the State Police Mobile Safe Freight Unit stopped his tractor-trailer on I-78 in Greenwich Township to conduct a routine commercial vehicle safety inspection. Through an investigation, 64 kilograms of heroin and 10 kilograms of cocaine was discovered.
“The 64 kilos of heroin seized from Ventura’s tractor-trailer could have generated several million doses of heroin once cut and packaged for distribution,” said Attorney General Porrino. “Thanks to the vigilance of Trooper Agens, this deadly cargo never reached the streets of our communities, and undoubtedly lives were saved that would have been lost to overdoses. This plea keeps Ventura in prison where he belongs.”
“Seizures on this scale have a major and immediate impact in cutting off the supply line of these deadly and corrosive drugs in New Jersey and the region,” said Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice. “We’ll continue to target large-scale heroin traffickers as well as those who run the pill mills that are fueling addiction by illegally supplying the black market for prescription opiates.”
“The positive effects of a narcotics seizure of this magnitude can be measured in a variety of ways, which include a reduction in violence associated with dealing, the disruption of a major trafficking network, and almost certainly a life being saved,” said Colonel Rick Fuentes, Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police. “Trooper James Agens earned the highest award given by the New Jersey State Police for his extraordinary drug interdiction efforts in 2016, and he is commended along with the Mobile Safe Freight Unit for their hard work and dedication.”
By: Jay Edwards
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(Left:Oscar Franco/Right:Henry A. Cruz Ventura)