12 indicted in alleged family-run N. Camden drug network

Twelve people have been indicted on racketeering charges as alleged members of a family-run drug network that distributed large quantities of heroin and fentanyl in a violence-torn area of North Camden, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced Friday.

Two other defendants face weapons charges, his office said.

The defendants were indicted Thursday by a state grand jury in what authorities are calling “Operation Strikeout.” Most were arrested in October.

Six guns were seized in the investigation, including an illegal, untraceable “ghost gun” and plans and materials to make such guns, the Attorney General’s Office said. The network’s heroin, branded under the name “Bad Boys,” has been linked to three overdoses, including two that were fatal, authorities said.

The alleged “owners and operators” of the network were identified as Wilbert Segarra, 40, and Luis I. Rosado, 28, both of Camden. Segarra, the alleged primary ringleader, had been arrested in July in Virginia after he was wanted on attempted-murder charges in a May shooting in Camden.

Segarra allegedly continued to run the drug network with Rosado while on the lam and in jail, the Attorney General’s Office said. The network was based in the 400 block of Grant Street and operated in and around a section of North Camden, authorities said.

Rosado’s girlfriend, Meligza Cruz, 32, of Camden, who allegedly managed day-to-day operations for the drug network, was charged like Segarra and Rosado with first-degree promoting organized street crime and first-degree racketeering. Segarra also faces a charge of first-degree leader of a narcotics trafficking network, which carries a sentence of life in prison, including 25 years without parole.

Segarra, Rosado, and Cruz are allegedly members of the G-Shine set of the Bloods street gang, the AG’s Office said.

Segarra’s attorney, Robin Lord, said by text Friday of the new charges: “The state recognized it could not win the attempted murder charge, so they are trying to up the ante. They will fail at this as well.”

Segarra still faces trial in the attempted-murder case, as does a codefendant, Joseph Cooper Jr., 24, of the 700 block of East Westmoreland Street in the Kensington section of Philadelphia.

Eight of the defendants, including Rosado and Cruz, were arrested last Oct. 4, when partnering agencies executed arrest and search warrants in Camden and Philadelphia, the Attorney General’s Office said.

Also charged with first-degree racketeering were Cooper Jr. and the following Camden residents: Maria Morales, 29; Ramon Saldana, 22; Rafael Velazquez, 27; Migdoel Morales-Cruz, 33; Michael Canales, 23; Angel Martinez, 34; Daniel Sanjurjo Jr., 21; and Emanuel Morales, 25.

Cruz, the Moraleses, and Morales-Cruz are siblings or cousins, and other ring members may also be related, the office said.

Two other family members, Jose Morales, 49, of Camden, and Jesus Morales Cruz, 34, of the 800 block of Russell Street in Kensington, were indicted on weapons charges, the office said.