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40 kilos cocaine, $1M cash: Drug network trial begins in Hackensack

ONLY ON CVP: Now that plea deals have been taken by three men accused of moving 40 kilos of cocaine cross-country to New Jersey in exchange for more than $1 million in cash, the trial of a fourth has finally begun in Hackensack.

Photo Credit: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter

Carlos Marroquin, 52, who has spent the last two years in jail, is accused of stuffing the drugs into a trap in the gas tank of a tractor-trailer driven to a Metuchen warehouse.

Three other men have all cut deals with prosecutors and are testifying against Marroquin in the trial.

All four were arrested by a New Jersey State Police troopers and detectives as they left the warehouse.

Investigators said they found 33 bundles of cellophane-wrapped U.S. currency totaling approximately $1.1 million concealed within a false fuel tank of the 2001 Freightliner tractor.

Checking other vehicles, they found 20 kilograms of cocaine each stashed in electronically-activated hidden compartments of two Saturn Vues, a grand jury indictment returned in Trenton says. The search of a Ford Excursion revealed another “trap” that was empty, it says.

Investigators earlier followed Marroquin and one of the other three, Juan Roque of Los Angeles, who drove the truck containing a “Costco-style bulk of drugs” from a Hackensack apartment to the Middlesex County destination on July 24, 2012, state Deputy Attorney General Jacqueline Weyand told jurors this week.

All four had roles in the transportation and exchange of drugs for money, the prosecutor said.

Marroquin’s lawyer contends that his client was along for the ride, had no idea what was happening and sat in the truck the entire time.

Undercover investigators followed co-defendant Cesar Perez for two months but “never saw Marroquin until the day of the arrest,” defense attorney Scott Finckenauer told jurors.

At no point do cellphone records show his client ever calling Perez, he added.

“The other three all cut a deal that included a requirement they testify against this man — this man who was sitting in a truck,” Finckenauer told the eight men and six women on the jury.

Among those who testified on Wednesday were Perez. Questioned by Finckenauer, he said prosecutors have offered him a sentence of 10 years, three without parole. With credit for time served, he technically could be eligible for parole in less than 1½ years.

Although Perez and the other two cooperating convicts “may not be people we would invite out to dinner,” Weyand urged jurors to “observe their demeanor and decide if they are credible.”

The arrests were part of a larger investigation by state police, NY/NJ Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force and the Metuchen Police Department into a “sophisticated criminal enterprise,” State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes said at the time.

Investigators seized cash and assets exceeding $3 million that included six vehicles — a 2003 Saturn Vue, 2004 Saturn Vue, 2000 Ford Excursion, 2004 Ford Econoline van, 2004 Honda Accord, and a 2001 Freightliner tractor — four of which they said contained electronically activated hidden compartments.

The cash included $30,000 found during a search of the Hackensack apartment on Gardner Place, just off Liberty Avenue between Hudson Street and the Shop-Rite shopping plaza on River Road.

Perez, Roque and Divanis Andres Mendoza of New York City all pleaded guilty in March.

STORY / PHOTO: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter

 

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