News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 17, 2007
For further Information Contact:
DEA Special Agent Douglas S. Collier,
Public Information Officer
TEL: (973) 776-1143
CELL: (862) 849-9833

Three Convicted In Heroin Pipeline Case

JAN 17 -- GERARD P. MCALEER, the Special Agent in Charge of the New Jersey Division for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), MICHAEL J. GARCIA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, EDWARD J. DEFAZIO, the Hudson County Prosecutor, and CARMEN LABRUNO, Chief of the Hoboken Police Department, announced that Jose GONZALEZ, a/k/a “Nutty,” RORY PRAYLOW, and MANUEL SUAREZ, a/k/a “murder,” that three members of a heroin trafficking organization operating in Northern New Jersey and Manhattan pled guilty during their trial on January 17, 2006. The defendant’s jury trial begun just prior to their pleading guilty to all counts in the Indictment.

According to the Indictment and as set forth in the Government’s opening statement in the case: From 2004 until March 2006, GONZALEZ, PRAYLOW, and SUAREZ bought large kilogram-quantities of heroin in Manhattan and transported the heroin to Northern New Jersey. The defendants then sold the heroin, in bulk, to street-level drug dealers, primarily in Hoboken and Jersey City, New Jersey. In connection with the arrests, law enforcement agents recovered approximately 27, 000 glassine bags of heroin, four loaded handguns, a bullet proof vest, as well as several luxury vehicles equipped with hidden trap compartments that were used to transport the heroin and guns.

SAC McAleer stated, “The guilty pleas support our mission within DEA, we will continue to disrupt and dismantle drug trafficking organizations and take them apart from the top to the bottom and prosecute fully”. As a result of their pleas, GONZALEZ, PRAYLOW, and SUAREZ each face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and mandatory minimum sentences of 25 years imprisonment for GONZALEZ, and 15 years for PRAYLOW and SUAREZ.

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