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Those busted:
- Darnell Miller, 34, of Edgewater;
- Gary Mertil, a 32-year-old Uber driver from West New York;
- Allen Statum, 55, of Miramar, Florida;
- Juan Norzagaray, 33, of Tucson Arizona.
Hackensack police officers who responded to a call Thursday of two suspicious men in the parking lot of the Riverside Square Mall found Statum and Norzagary carrying nearly $70,000 in cash, Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir S. Grewal said.
Police arrested both on money charges and alerted the county NTF. Soon after, both agencies connected with Edgewater police and the DEA to raid Miller’s Myrtle Avenue home, Grewal said.
Mwertil was outside the Myrtle Avenue two-family home carrying marijuana, the prosecutor said.
Detectives obtained a search warrant and raided the place, arresting Miller in the process.
Miller was charged with various drug counts – including maintaining and operating a drug manufacturing and distribution operation -- as well as with having the gun while committing a drug crime, money laundering and tampering with evidence.
A judge ordered Miller held in the Bergen County Jail pending a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack.
Statum and Nozagara were charged with money laundering and released without bail pending a first appearance in the same court.
Mertil also was released without bail pending a first appearance on drug possession charges.
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