Police seize 30 heroin “bricks” in Toms River
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More than 50 residents attended the meeting in the alleyway on Tuesday evening. (Bas Slabbers/for NewsWorks)
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The 550-foot stone-masonry retaining wall that separates the rear alley of houses along West Penn Street from the common driveway of homes along Midvale Avenue is leaning, cracked and unsafe. (Bas Slabbers/for NewsWorks, file)
A surveillance operation led to the seizure of a substantial quantity of heroin late Monday afternoon in Toms River, police said.
Members of the Toms River Police Department’s Special Enforcement Team observed a narcotics transaction in the parking lot of Howard Johnson’s Hotel at 955 Hooper Avenue while they were conducting a surveillance operation at 5 p.m., said Ralph Stocco, spokesman for the Toms River Police Department, in a release.
Police determined that a black Chevy Suburban, operated by Jeffrey Winiavski, 36, of JFK Boulevard in Pine Beach, was used in narcotic trafficking activities, according to Stocco. As the vehicle left the area, officers initiated mobile surveillance.
Upon observing numerous motor vehicle violations, police stopped the vehicle and eventually seized approximately 30 bricks of heroin, or 1,508 individual wax folds, from inside, Stocco said.
Winiavski, who was placed under arrest without incident, was charged with possession of heroin and possession of heroin with the intent to distribute over 1⁄2 ounce, according to Stocco. Bail was set at $75,000 with no 10% option. Winiavski is currently incarcerated in the Ocean County Jail.
Since January 2014, the Toms River Special Enforcement Team has confiscated approximately 15,000 bags of heroin, with a street value of $150,000.
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