A suspect, the second in two days to be charged with operating a mobile drug bazaar, was arraigned today on multiple narcotics charges following her arrest on Monday by Essex County sheriff’s detectives.
Sheriff Armando Fontoura stated that detectives from his department’s Bureau of Narcotics staged a plainclothes surveillance operation yesterday afternoon near the intersection of Springdale Avenue and North 11th Street in the city’s North Ward in response to neighborhood complaints of open-air drug trafficking.
“Once our BON detectives were in position, a female driver, operating a rented 2016 Mercedes Benz with Virginia license plates, pulled up at that location and parked,” Sheriff Fontoura noted. “After a while, another female, driving a Dodge Dart, pulled up and parked behind the Mercedes.”
The driver of the Dart, later identified as Danielle Cortese, 23, of Bloomfield, exited her vehicle and initiated a conversation with the driver of the Mercedes, also later identified as 31-year-old Najmah Nash of Woodridge.
Nash exchanged an item with Cortese for cash. Believing they had witnessed a drug transaction, the sheriff’s BON detectives followed Cortese from the scene and pulled her over a few blocks away. Cortese was found to be in possession of one heroin-filled glassine envelop, stamped ‘IMPACT’ in black ink, and arrested.
“Back at the scene of the transaction, our detectives moved in to further investigate,” Fontoura said. “On the front passenger floorboard, our BON officers observed an open brown handbag in plain sight that contained a large amount of cash, a green-tinted medicine bottle and a plastic bag containing numerous glassing packets held together by rubber bands.”
A search of Nash’s car yielded 501 decks of similarly stamped heroin, 11 grams of ‘crack’ cocaine, 90 grams of marijuana and $1,378 in cash. The narcotics have an estimated street value in excess of $10,000.
Nash was charged with three counts each of possession of a controlled dangerous substance, possession of CDS with intent to distribute and possession of CDS with intent to distribute within 500 feet of a public housing complex. Nash was also charged with the sale of CDS and the sale of CDS within 500 feet of public housing.
At today’s arraignment, Nash was ordered held at the county jail in lieu of $250,000 cash bond only.
Cortese was issued a summons for possession of CDS and released in her own recognizance. She will be arraigned at a later date.