2004 Media Releases:

CAMDEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE
VINCENT P. SARUBBI, CAMDEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR
MEDIA   INFORMATION

December 15, 2004

Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi, Camden Police Chief Edwin J. Figueroa and Cherry Hill Police Chief Brian Malloy announced today that a Cherry Hill man was arrested on Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2004, and charged with drug offenses, including being a Leader of a Narcotics Trafficking Network.

Daniel Rivera, 34, of West Hoffman Avenue, was being held at the Camden County Corrections Facility in lieu of $350,000 bail. Three others, including Rivera's girlfriend, were also arrested Tuesday and charged with drug offenses, accused of participating in an open-air marijuana distribution network based at 34th and Federal streets in Camden, N.J.

The arrests were the result of a four-month investigation. The operation was carried out by an array of agencies that make up the Philadelphia/Camden High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force and the Camden Anti-Crime Partnership (CAP). They include the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, Camden Police, New Jersey State Police, New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice, Camden County Sheriff's Department, FBI, DEA and the Delaware River Port Authority Police. Their efforts have been supplemented by the U.S. Attorney's Office, U.S. Marshal's Office, and other federal, state and local agencies. Cherry Hill Police and Maple Shade Police (?) also assisted in the operation.

Search warrants were executed at the Hoffman Avenue address and at a home in Maple Shade, N.J., which the defendants allegedly used as a stash house. Officers seized approximately two pounds of marijuana, packaging material and other paraphernalia, as well as $34,730 cash.

In addition to Leader of a Narcotics Trafficking Network, which carries up to a life sentence including 25 years without parole, Rivera was charged with Distribution of More than 25 Pounds of Marijuana, carrying up to 20 years.

Also charged were:

• Melissa Rivera, F/25, of the Hoffman Avenue address, Distribution of More than 25 Pounds of Marijuana, carrying up to 20 years. She was sent to the jail in lieu of $100,000 bail. She is the girlfriend of Daniel Rivera but not related to him.
• Douglas Soto, M/32, of North 28th Street in Camden, Distribution of More than 25 Pounds of Marijuana, carrying up to 20 years. He was sent to the jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.
• Giovanni Serrano, M/28, of West Broad Street in Paulsboro, Distribution of More than Five Pounds of Marijuana, carrying up to 10 years. He was sent to the jail in lieu of $25,000 bail.
  
  

All persons charged with criminal offenses are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.