TRENTON – Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and U.S. Marshal for the District of New Jersey Juan Mattos today announced the arrest of 75 fugitives, including 26 gang members, in Camden and Atlantic City as part of a multiagency anti-violence initiative known as “Operation Summer in the City 2.” Among those arrested were two fugitives – Ordale Telfair and Ramike Medina-Brown – who were wanted for murder.
The initiative builds off a similar effort conducted last July, which was known as “Operation Summer in the City” and targeted violent fugitives in Newark, Jersey City, Trenton, and Camden.
Both operations are part of a collaborative effort developed by U.S. Marshal Mattos and Attorney General Grewal to address violence in the summer, when crime rates tend to increase.
More than 15 federal, state, county, and local law enforcement agencies participated in “Operation Summer in the City 2,” which took place in the Atlantic City and Camden metro areas between June 10 and June 14, 2019.
As with last year’s effort, the goal was to target particularly violent or dangerous individuals who had not yet been arrested on outstanding criminal charges.
The 75 arrests included 26 documented gang members, including 17 Bloods, eight Crips, and one Latin King. Of the individuals arrested, 16 were arrested in the Atlantic City area, 56 were arrested in the Camden area, and three were arrested in other states on warrants issued in South Jersey.
“The U.S. Marshals Service is thankful for the relationships that we have with our city, county, state, and federal law enforcement partners that worked tenaciously in excessive and exhaustive heat conditions to make ‘Operation Summer in the City 2’ a huge success,” said U.S. Marshal Mattos.
“This fugitive sweep by the NY/NJ RFTF is not the end, nor even a break, in the U.S. Marshals fight against violent crime and narcotics trafficking in New Jersey. Additional operations are forthcoming and we are coming to your city in the very near future.”
“We are using every tool in our toolbox to fight violent crime in New Jersey,” said Attorney General Grewal. “We are taking the most violent and dangerous fugitives off the streets, and we’re doing it right as the summer starts heating up.
I’m grateful for the leadership of U.S. Marshal Mattos on this important project and for the partnership of so many other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. Together, we can make New Jersey the safest state in the country.”
Among the arrests made as a result of “Operation Summer in the City 2” were:
Ordale Telfair, 37, was wanted for murder in the shooting death of Tayshon Hayward, 26, of Penns Grove, N.J., on May 23, 2019.
Telfair was arrested on June 12 by members of the U.S. Marshals Service South East Regional Fugitive Task Force in Powder Springs, Georgia. He was located based on leads developed by the Camden Division and Counter Gang Unit of the U.S. Marshals Service NY/NJ Regional Fugitive Task.
Telfair had been released from prison just eight days before the murder.
Ramike Medina-Brown, 23, of Camden, N.J., was wanted for murder in the stabbing death of Eileen Brown, 53, of Camden, on May 25, 2019. He was arrested in Manhattan on June 14 by members of the New York City Division of the U.S. Marshals Service NY/NJ Regional Fugitive Task Force, based on leads developed by the Camden Division.
Jamar Hurd, 18, of Durham, N.C., was arrested in Mays Landing, N.J., on June 11, 2019 by members of the Atlantic City Division of the U.S. Marshals Service NY/NJ Regional Fugitive Task Force.
He was wanted in connection with a robbery in North Carolina in which he allegedly stole two handguns, as well as a separate burglary in North Carolina in which he allegedly broke into a law enforcement officer’s vehicle and stole a handgun.
Glenn Preston, 24, of Camden, N.J., was arrested on June 11, 2019 by members of the Camden Division and Counter Gang Unit of the U.S. Marshals Service NY/NJ Regional Fugitive Task Force.
He was in possession of a backpack containing a loaded .45-caliber handgun, 22 additional hollow-point bullets, and approximately 180 vials of crack cocaine.
Joseph Long, 31, of Monroe Township, N.J., was wanted by the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office on a first-degree charge of strict liability for a drug-induced death in connection with his alleged trafficking of heroin and fentanyl.
He was arrested on June 12 in Monroe Township by members of the Camden Division and Counter Gang Unit of the U.S. Marshals Service NY/NJ Regional Fugitive Task Force.
The U.S. Marshals Gang Enforcement Program is part of the Agency’s Organized Crime and Gangs Branch (OCAG).
Through strategic fugitive investigations, the OCAG seeks to disrupt and destabilize criminal networks holistically, from the street level gangster to high-ranking leaders of the most notorious Transnational Criminal Organizations. In the state of New Jersey alone, the U.S. Marshals Service Gang and Regional Fugitive Task Forces have arrested 126 documented gang members from January through June of this year. In that same time frame, a total of 950 fugitives have been arrested by U.S. Marshals Task Forces in New Jersey and that number continues to grow, as each and every single day, some of the most violent offenders in the state are apprehended.
The law enforcement agencies that participated in “Operation Summer in the City 2” include:
U.S. Marshals Service
New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice
U.S. Homeland Security Investigations
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey
New Jersey State Police Gangs & Organized Crime, Fugitive, and K-9 Units
New Jersey State Parole Board
New Jersey Department of Corrections
Camden County Metro Police Department
Camden County Prosecutor’s Office
Camden County Sheriff’s Department
Atlantic County Sheriff’s Department
Deptford Police Department
Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office
Pennsauken Police Department
Burlington County Sheriff’s Department