2003-07-29 -- Rea, Christopher et al. -- Indictment -- News Release

Nine People, Including a Maplewood Police Officer, Indicted for Conspiracy to Import Ecstasy into the United States

NEWARK - Nine North Jersey residents, including a Maplewood police officer, were arrested today and charged in an Indictment with conspiracy to import the drug commonly called "ecstasy" from the Netherlands via France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal into New Jersey for distribution, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.

The nine-count Indictment, unsealed today with the defendants' arrests, charges each of the nine defendants with conspiracy to import a controlled substance. The Indictment alleges that between October 1999 and December 2001, Christopher Rea, 35, of West New York, organized a conspiracy in which eight defendants, as well as others, brought quantities of the Schedule I controlled narcotic 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), or ecstasy, into the United States through Newark Liberty International Airport.

According to the Indictment, Rea provided the eight other defendants - who acted as drug couriers - with money to purchase the ecstasy from drug suppliers in Europe. On several occasions, couriers allegedly left the U.S. with large sums of cash concealed beneath their clothing. After purchasing the ecstasy in the Netherlands, the couriers then smuggled the drugs into the United States also by hiding the ecstasy beneath their clothes. Maplewood police officer Brian Cohen, 29, of Clifton was one of the couriers, although he was not a police officer when he imported the ecstasy.

Each of the defendants are scheduled to make initial appearances today at 2 p.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Madeline Cox Arleo.

"It is the responsibility of this office to aggressively pursue large drug smuggling rings," Christie said. "They violate our laws, but more importantly they poison our children and sentence them to a life of addiction. We will continue to fight against these merchants of misery and death."

Among those also charged in the Indictment besides Rea and Cohen are:

• Steven J. Folenta, 29, of Lincoln Park
• Catherine A. Giaquinto, 27, of Hasbrouck Heights
• Matthew A. Jacobs, 29, of Garfield
• Erik E. Kornacki, 27, of Fairfield
• Raymond J. Raiani, 27, of Parsippany
• Vincent J. Ricciotti, 31, of Clifton
• Michael J. Weachock, 29, of Bloomfield

Besides conspiracy, each of the couriers is also charged with specific acts of importation.

Count One, conspiracy, carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1,000,000 fine. Count Two through Count Nine each charges importation of ecstasy. Those counts carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1,000,000 fine.

The Indictment does not identify the amounts of money or ecstasy allegedly involved in the transactions. The investigation did reveal, however, that hundreds of thousands of tablets of the drug were involved in the importation conspiracy.

Under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, the U.S. District Judge to whom the case is assigned would, upon a conviction, determine the actual sentence based upon a formula that takes into account the severity and characteristics of the offense, as well as each defendant's criminal history. Parole has been abolished in the federal system. Under Sentencing Guidelines, defendants who are given custodial terms must serve nearly all that time.

An Indictment is a formal charge made by a grand jury, a body of 16 to 23 citizens, Christie noted. Grand jury proceedings are secret, and neither persons under investigation nor their attorneys have the right to be present. A grand jury may vote an Indictment if 12 or more jurors find probable cause to believe that the defendant has committed the crime or crimes charged.

Despite Indictment, every defendant is presumed innocent, unless and until found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt following a trial at which the defendant has all of the trial rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and federal law.

Christie credited Special Agents of the Newark Field Office of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, under the direction of Interim Special Agent in Charge John P. Torres, as well as the Newark Field Office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Alexander J. Gourley with developing the case against the defendants. Christie also thanked law enforcement officials in Milan, Italy who initially referred the investigation to the United States authorities.

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