Police: Bridgeton gang members arrested in Salem County BRIDGETON - Police in Salem County arrested a number of alleged gangsters from this city as part of a statewide crackdown on gang violence. State officials announced Wednesday that members of the Fruit Town Brims and Milltown Mafia - which Bridgeton police identified as gangs operating in the city - were arrested in a months-long operation conducted jointly by law enforcement agencies at the city, county and state level. Salem County Prosecutor John Lenahan said 49 people were arrested in the city of Salem and adjacent Quinton Township on Tuesday alone. During those raids, he added, police seized five cars, almost $9,000 in cash, more than $1,500 in cocaine and marijuana and two weapons. In the past 17 weeks, police in Salem County also recovered more than 700 bags of cocaine, marijuana and other street drugs such as heroin and methamphetamine, which had a total street value of about $25,000. The sale of illegal drugs, he added, serves as the gangs' primary enterprise, although several other types of crimes - including street robberies and weapons offenses - have also been attributed to both groups.

Six-month investigation nets 80 gang members in Middlesex CountyMore than 80 gang members or affiliates were arrested during the last six months as a result of an investigation led by the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office, the prosecutor announced Wednesday, Oct. 8. The multi-agency operation netted defendants who operated with more than a dozen "criminally active" gangs or gang sets throughout the county, Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan said. Some six months of intelligence-gathering and surveillance, during which 64 arrests were made, culminated this month with the arrests of 18 more suspects, he said. The street gangs targeted or encountered during the investigation consist of several Blood sets, including Sex Money Murder (SMM), G-Shine, Neighborhood Rollin 20's (NHB), Bounty Hunter Bloods (BHB), 9Tek and IMG-464. Kaplan said they also include Latin Kings, Netas, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Crips, Vatos Locos, 18th Street, La Mugre, Trinitarios, Dominicans Don't Play and A-Set. The investigation reached its final phase on Thursday, Oct. 2, and ended Wednesday, Oct. 8, resulting in arrest warrants for 18 suspects throughout the county, Kaplan said. In this week's final phase, four additional search warrants executed in New Brunswick, North Brunswick and Highland Park yielded 10 grams of cocaine and 2 ounces of marijuana.

Ex-gang boss: Truce based on the sacrificing of Ñetas traitorTRENTON - A former boss of the Ñetas said that the only way to avoid a street war with the Latin Kings was to offer one of its turncoats to the rivals as a sacrifice. Fernando Maestra is the latest gangster to say Jose "Boom Bat" Negrete was the Latin Kings boss who ordered the murders of two gang affiliates. "Elkay (Alex Ruiz) was a member of the Ñetas, and then he went to the Latin Kings. That should have never happened. His younger brother (was) also a Ñetas, and everybody (in the Ñetas) was very upset," Maestra testified yesterday under direct-examination by Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Thomas Meidt. "In order for someone to leave the Ñetas you beat him up or kill him," Maestra said. "We had a lot of conversations about what we were going to do. We talked about a week.