The Star-Ledger The Star-Ledger

on June 14, 2013 at 6:30 AM, updated June 14, 2013 at 10:47 AM 

http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2013/06/montclair_cop_tied_to_wide-ranging_drug_and_money_laundering_scheme.html

MONTCLAIR — Last December, a truck pulling a trailer arrived at a darkened warehouse in Jessup, Md. As federal agents watched, a group of men began heaving bales of marijuana out of the trailer and onto the loading dock.

Among them was a big guy, who agents later learned was a cop.

Authorities say Anes Hadzifejzovic, 27, a Montclair patrolman, used his status as a law enforcement officer to help move thousands of kilograms of marijuana, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, as part of a long-running operation that shuffled drugs and money between Maryland, New Jersey, California, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Much of the case remains under seal because at least one of those charged has yet to be taken into custody. But court records in Maryland detail an elaborate scheme involving more than 18 defendants — including three from New Jersey — that used a lucrative internet sports shoe business and other legitimate companies to help launder drug proceeds.

The entire ring came crashing down in January, when a phalanx of agents from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Internal Revenue Service made the first arrests in the case. However, Hadzifejzovic — who has been a member of the Montclair Police Department for four years — was not arrested until March, after a superceding indictment.

While the U.S. Attorney’s office in Maryland would not discuss the officer’s alleged involvement because the case is sealed, a plea agreement involving another of the defendants, filed two months ago in federal court in Baltimore and obtained this week by The Star-Ledger, offered some details.

According to the documents, surveillance videos showed Hadzifejzovic and two other New Jersey men at the Maryland warehouse in December when a drug shipment was dropped off. The warehouse was the location of Krush NYC, an eBay based re-seller of popular sports shoes whose principals include Kerem Dayi, who has also been charged as the ringleader in the drug and money laundering plot.

The court filing, describing the surveillance, said agents watched a truck drive up to the warehouse at about 10 p.m., where what was described as "bales of marijuana" were off loaded. About an hour later, another truck backed up to the warehouse and was loaded with at least eight large cartons which agents said contained marijuana. The second truck was then driven to New Jersey.

Behind the wheel, prosecutors say, was Gokahn Bergal, 29, of Clifton, who they say was accompanied by Hadzifejzovic. The court documents said the shipment would later be delivered to Patrick Russo, a 39-year-old Fairfield man described by investigators as one of Dayi’s top lieutenants.

Bergal and Russo have also been charged in the case. Court records note search warrants have since been executed at Russo’s Fairfield home, a Newark clothing store and two Jersey City businesses.

Mike Rothman, a Maryland attorney representing Hadzifejzovic, said federal prosecutors have limited evidence against his client, who he acknowledged was at the warehouse in December 2012 but had no knowledge any illegal activity was taking place.

Rothman said Hadzifejzovic and Bergal were longtime friends and that the two had simply taken a roadtrip to Maryland.

"The only thing that they have presented to us as evidence is a very blurry, grainy, surveillance tape of somebody they purport to be my client sitting in a truck," he said.

Rothman believes the government will claim the officer was acting as a lookout or as muscle for the drug ring.

Hadzifejzovic was arrested at Montclair Police Headquarters in early March, and suspended immediately, according to his attorney, who said the public arrest was embarassing and unnecessary given the flimsy evidence.

The investigation into the drug ring began more than a year ago, when one of those tied to the case got into a car accident in Maryland. Inside his car, police discovered a shrink-wrapped package of 590 grams of marijuana, a money counting machine, a tally sheet and 126 bank money bands for $2,000.

According to prosecutors, Dayi had sources of marijuana in California and New Jersey, and would arrange shipments of between 20 pounds and 400 pounds at a time between five different states, according to the indictment. The deliveries would be made to houses rented and managed by Dayi and other members of the organization.

Proceeds of the ring would be invested into otherwise legitimate businesses operated by Dayi and others tied to the scheme, authorities said.

Hadzifejzovic joined the Montclair Police Department in April of 2009. Calls to Montclair Police Chief David Sabagh were not returned and Mayor Robert Jackson declined comment.

The roles of Hadzifejzovic, Russo and Bergal were first described in court papers when another of those charged in the case, Scott Russel Segal — described as the largest marijuana distributor in Anne Arundel County, Md. — pleaded guilty in April to charges of distribution and money laundering.

Bergal’s attorney, Robert Waldman, said his client was released under the supervision of the court, adding the 29-year-old was a construction worker with no prior criminal record. Russo’s attorney did not return calls for comment.