Jersey City police, Hudson County Task Force officers and NJ State Police officers fanned out early Friday morning across the county to arrest suspects on various charges, including some related to drugs.
From 6:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., according to the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, there were to be 17 different locations raided based on parole and/or arrest warrants issued. By the afternoon, a total of eight adults and one juvenile had been arrested.Morning rush
At 5 a.m. Friday morning, law enforcement officers from Jersey City, the state, and the county were gathering in a hallway, bantering with one another while downing cups of coffee.
After an hour of waiting, there was a roll call of the officers who were present.
A small group of officers was dispatched to a briefing with their superiors. Captain Kenneth Teschlog, a veteran Jersey City police officer who is in charge of the police department’s anti-gang task force, was one of two main commanders to oversee the raids. Heading to the scene
By 6:30, all the officers knew the locations of their raids. Soon they were driving down Duncan Avenue, part of a caravan of unmarked vehicles that made it across town to Wilkinson Avenue.
When the cars reached Wilkinson Avenue, they immediately double parked and rushed out of their cars. Officers split into two groups and served three warrants at two buildings on the block.
Two officers said that they caught one of the persons trying to escape out a window at the back of a building wearing just his underwear.
Four people were arrested, and an infant was taken out of the one of the buildings.
The buildings, according to one of the officers, have been raided before.
An officer said that the police call one of the arrested men “uncle” since they are so familiar with him. The next raid
Once the first raid was finished, it was back to the Sheriff’s office where the four persons arrested were processed.
But after that, there was another raid – at a house on the corner of Cator Avenue.
A warrant was issued for a young man who allegedly had drug paraphernalia in his residence. Police said that the young man tried to throw a bag of paraphernalia out a window but was told to put the bag back in the house and go back in.
Officers had a search warrant and went through his residence.
A veteran officer said that they were looking for cocaine, even though only equipment had been found.
The man pleaded with officers, saying there were no actual drugs on the premises. He was subsequently arrested and led out of the house.
The same veteran officer, during some downtime, revealed that he was a son of a cop who became one himself, still enjoying it after 26 years. He also said that as long as his son didn’t become one, he would be happy. His son could become an FBI agent, but not a cop.
“It’s all dirty work,” he said. “You get your hands dirty doing this job,” he said, “but I still love it.”
The names of those arrested were not released by press time, pending processing.