A Camden County man was sentenced today to 15 years in prison for conspiring to distribute heroin and cocaine in the city of Camden, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced.
According to Acting U.S. Attorney Honig, Carlos Perez, 48, of Collingswood, previously pleaded guilty in Camden federal court to an information charging him with conspiracy to distribute one kilogram or more of a mixture or substance containing heroin, as well as a mixture and substance containing cocaine, crack cocaine and fentanyl.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Nineteen defendants were arrested in late 2018 based on the FBI’s investigation of a drug trafficking organization that ran the open-air narcotics trade on the 400-500 block of Pine Street in Camden for several months in 2018.
The investigation used video surveillance, confidential informants, consensual recordings, controlled drug purchases, and several court-authorized wiretaps to uncover the inner workings of the drug trafficking organization.
The organization included street-level sellers who worked various shifts on the “drug set,” selling drugs to customers and collecting proceeds.
The sellers were supervised by different layers of managers who, in turn, supplied the drug set with pre-packaged heroin, some of which was mixed with fentanyl, as well as cocaine and crack cocaine.
Perez was a high-level supervisor for the drug trafficking organization and was responsible for obtaining powder cocaine from drug suppliers, converting or “cooking” the powder cocaine to manufacture crack cocaine, and packaging the crack cocaine distributed on the Pine Street drug set.
The FBI and other law enforcement officers recovered multiple firearms from different locations connected to the drug organization at the time of the 2018 arrests.
Perez agreed, as a member of the conspiracy, that he was jointly responsible for the distribution of over 1 kilogram of heroin, as well as substantial quantities of crack cocaine, cocaine and fentanyl.
Sixteen of the defendants already have entered guilty pleas on drug conspiracy charges. Three defendants are awaiting trial.