KEARNY — Based on information that the residence contained drugs, firearms and stolen property, officers from the Kearny Police Department Detective Bureau and Vice Unit, the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office and the Branchburg (N.J.) Police Department last week raided an apartment at 147 Kearny Ave.
Inside, police said, they found the drugs, the firearms and the stolen property — along with a pit bull and three suspects, including a wanted felon. And to gain entry, they had to use a battering ram, since the place was described as being “heavily fortified.”
The raid, executed under a court-authorized search warrant, was conducted at 10 a.m. last Tuesday, March 29. The apartment was located above a store, and when the officers entered the building they were confronted by what KPD Chief John Dowie called “the fatal funnel”: a narrow staircase leading to the residence.
Luckily, no one confronted the cops on the stairs, and luckily they also had the battering ram. When they broke down the door, “they were greeted by a large, aggressive pit bull,” Dowie said. They had been warned that the dog might be there, so they also came equipped with a snare, which was used to collar the canine and secure it in a cage.
The officers then conducted was “a systematic search pursuant to the warrant,” during which the following were reportedly found:
* In one bedroom, 28 bags of suspected marijuana, numerous empty plastic bags and a digital scale;
* In a second bedroom, 11 vials of suspected crack cocaine, 25 oxycodone pills, two more digital scales and numerous empty glass vials;
* In a third bedroom, a bag containing 10 watches, four bracelets and a Nikon digital camera;
* In the living room, a .25-caliber Titan semi-automatic pistol, reported stolen during a Somerset County burglary;
* In the bathroom, a Ruger 9mm semi-automatic, reported stolen in the same burglary.
Police said both the guns were loaded. Also found on the premises, and arrested without incident, were three Kearny males: Anthony Robertson, 27; Alan Arias, 26, and Antony Desai, 21.
Desai was charged with possession of marijuana, possession with intent to distribute, and possession of drug paraphernalia; Arias, with possession of marijuana, crack cocaine and oxycodone, and possession with intent to distribute each of those.
Police said the third suspect, Robertson, was wanted on a $100,000 N.J. parole-violation warrant. Last week, in addition to possession of pot and cocaine and drug paraphernalia and intent to distribute the narcotics, he was charged with: unlawful possession of weapons, certain persons [those with prior felony convictions] not to have weapons, receiving stolen property, having a fortified premises while engaged in a CDS offense, and possession of a firearm while engaged in a CDS offense.
Police said that Robertson had been arrested by the KPD Vice Unit in August 2012 for drug possession with intent to distribute and for resisting arrest. Sources told The Observer that the sentence handed down in Hudson County Superior Court was a six-month suspension of Robertson’s driver’s license, three days in jail and a $155 fine.
In April 2013, sources said, Robertson was arrested by the Jersey City police, charged with robbery and being the leader of organized crime, sentenced to three years in prison — and subsequently paroled.
Robertson has again been remanded to the Hudson County Jail. His bail: the $100,000 on the parole violation, plus an additional $250,000 set by Hudson County Judge Frank Carpenter.
