Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni held up a Nerds Rope candy like ones found laced with THC in the “Operation On The Ropes” drug bust.
Photo by Allison Perrine
MONMOUTH COUNTY – Twenty-four men and women have been charged in connection with a multimillion-dollar, large-scale marijuana and THC trafficking organization. Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni called the arrests “one of the largest drug busts in state history.”
The yearlong investigation, dubbed “Operation On The Ropes,” was led by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office (MCPO) Narcotics and Criminal Enterprise Unit.
Members of the drug ring infused popular brand-name candies like Nerds Rope and Sour Patch with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), “the substance that is responsible for creating a marijuana high,” Gramiccioni said. Though he could not say exactly how long the ring was operating, he estimated it went on for several years.
At a press conference in Freehold at headquarters Jan. 7, the prosecutor’s office displayed a tray of ordinary, commercially available candies like Sour Patch Watermelons, Nerds Rope and gummy Mini Burger, similar to the THC-infused candies found in the investigation.
“The counterfeit candy looks nearly identical to what anyone could buy at any convenience store or supermarket,” said Gramiccioni. “Colorful and sugary candy like what we seized are among the best-selling edible pot productions in the black market,” he added, and they “constitute an extreme danger to our community, particularly the children in all of our communities.”
Police seized about 21,000 packages of infused candies, an estimated 1,100 pounds of suspected marijuana, as well as over 6,000 flavored THC vape cartridges and additional paraphernalia, the MCPO announced, with a street value of about $1.9 million.
But if there is a silver lining to a case “as sad and serious” as this one, is that hopefully, this will draw further attention to the need for a vaping prohibition.
At the press conference, the MCPO had a 50-pound bale of hay on display to give reporters a visual comparison to the marijuana seized. According to Gramiccioni, officers seized the equivalent of 22 bales of marijuana from the operation.
The MCPO also seized nearly $1.5 million in cash, over $10 million in assets and 21 luxury vehicles.
The illegal operations were conducted in Monmouth, Ocean and Bergen counties, and parts of New York and California, police said. In Monmouth County, a warehouse on Park Avenue, off Route 33 in Manalapan Township, as well as a hangar at Monmouth Executive Airport in Wall Township, were used as production and storage facilities, Gramiccioni said.
At the facilities, candies would be unwrapped, laid out in trays and sprayed with concentrated THC distillate. Once the candies dried, they would be repackaged as illegal marijuana edibles and distributed throughout New Jersey.
The prosecutor stressed how dangerous this can be for people, especially for children in the community.
Gramiccioni gave thanks to the many federal, state, county and municipal law enforcement agencies that assisted in the investigation – more than 35 altogether.
John McCabe Jr., Monmouth County chief of detectives, said he has not seen a case like this in his 33-year career. He, too, stressed the importance of sending the right message to children and other adolescents that vaping is dangerous. “The perception that vaping is healthier than smoking is absolutely false,” he said. Referring to a report by the Center for Disease Control, McCabe added that as of December 2019 there have been over 2,561 lung injuries and 55 deaths related to vaping.
McCabe also said there is added danger in not knowing how much THC is in each edible. “The dangers of overindulgence of edibles is the highest when compared to the other ways to ingest marijuana.”
Of the 24 individuals charged in the investigation, one California man, Anthony Dalessandro, remains at-large, said Gramiccioni. Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to contact the MCPO.
Anyone looking to remain anonymous can contact Monmouth County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-671-4400 or can text MONMOUTH and their tip to 274637. Emails can be sent through the website at monmouthcountycrimestoppers.com.
This article originally appeared in the Jan. 9, 2020 print edition of The Two River Times.
