An Absecon man who used the internet to mail order cocaine and designer drugs was sentenced to 10 years in prison Friday.
Aldo Lapaix, 31, was one of three ringleaders, and was charged with filling the orders that he would then package and ship.
The enterprise was discovered by a detective monitoring the activities of white supremacist groups in Atlantic City.
He was one of a dozen people charged in “Operation Skin Deep” in March 2013, that yielded a quarter-million dollars in cash, diamond jewelry, gold bars, a quarter-kilogram of cocaine, numerous rounds of ammunition, firearm silencers, and cocaine testing, cutting and packaging materials.
The investigation into cocaine sales in Atlantic City ultimately exposed a network that was using the internet to arrange mail-order sales of cocaine and designer drugs, including ethylone, which is known as “M” and is similar to ecstasy.
First-degree charges of racketeering and distribution of cocaine are pending against Lapaix’s alleged partners: Christopher Castelluzzo, 33, of Lake Hopatcong, Sussex County, and Luke A. Atwell, 36, of Hamilton Township, Mercer County. Castelluzo also faces a first-degree charge of leader of a narcotics trafficking network.
“What began as an operation targeting a few drug dealers in Atlantic City became a statewide investigation that shut down a very lucrative narcotics marketing scheme,” said Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice. “The extent of their illicit profits was illustrated by the nearly $1.5 million in cash seized by our detectives.”
Four other have pleaded guilty in the ring, and have received or are facing prison sentences ranging from five to seven years.
The arrests included one of the largest cash seizures in state law enforcement history.
Detectives found about $1.2 million in the trunk of Shazad Khan’s Infiniti during a stop in the parking lot off Union Turnpike in North Bergen, Hudson County.
Khan was allegedly meeting California tractor-trailer driver Jose Ruvalcaba to give him the money that would be taken as payment for cocaine.
“Aggressively prosecuting narcotics traffickers is a critical component in our multi-faceted efforts to fight the epidemic of drug addiction in New Jersey,” Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said. “These drug dealers sought to evade law enforcement and increase their profits by adopting an internet-age business model, but we uncovered their crimes and are sending them to prison for lengthy terms.”
Atwell was allegedly responsible for marketing the enterprise’s drugs on the internet, tracking and managing the gross receipts and expenses, dealing with customers, and keeping an inventory of the remaining drugs.
He would allegedly send computer files to Lapaix containing lists of orders, including screen names of customers, their addresses and the amount and type of narcotics that each customer ordered.
When Lapaix received the files, he and two men who worked under him would weigh out the drugs, package them, create tracking information and mail each of the orders, according to the charges. Atwell allegedly would ensure all orders were properly filled.
Lapaix obtained the supplies for packaging the orders and Atwell reimbursed him. Lapaix also engaged in street-level narcotics sales.
