Grandpa admits distributing cocaine, Montville resident caught in drug sweep faces 5 years or more

star ledger ^ | 09.26.08 | MARGARET McHUGH

[Coleus]

A 71-year-old grandfather arrested in a major drug sweep a year ago faces at least five years behind bars after admitting yesterday that he distributed cocaine. Montville resident George DelVecchio, described by Morris County Prosecutor Robert A. Bianchi as a major distributor, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute. The grandfather of four could be sentenced to up to 10 years in state prison under his plea deal.

"While it is unfortunate that a person of the defendant's age will be incarcerated for this length of time, it is also equally unfortunate that he made a decision at his age to engage in this illegal activity to distribute narcotics," Bianchi said. The prosecutor said his office is committed to going after "high-level drug dealers who poison our community with illegal narcotics."

DelVecchio's 70-year-old wife, Jean, who admitted driving with her husband when he went to pick up cocaine in Irvington in May 2007, will get probation for her guilty plea to a conspiracy charge. The DelVecchios were among nearly 100 people arrested in October as part of Operation Redirect, a multi-agency wiretap investigation aimed at bringing down a major drug trafficking network that operated mainly in Morris County. During the seven months police were watching, dealers moved 5 kilograms of cocaine with a street value of $500,000 and prescription painkillers with a street value of $40,000.

Dozens of people arrested in Operation Redirect were in front of Superior Court Judge Thomas V. Manahan yesterday, including more than a dozen low-level defendants who took plea deals. Manahan fined some of them, while others face probation and community service.

[rightwingextremist1776]

Don’t do the crime ifin’ you can’t do the time....

[supremedoctrine]

I know this town, having some customers on whose houses I’ve worked. Not the kind of town or area you’d associate with a 71 yr old cocaine dealer. Irvington, though, where he bought the drugs, is one of the worst towns in Northern New Jersey. His lawyer will no doubt offer a novel ‘defense’.

[Ken H]

This is not your grandfather's grandfather... as it were.

[aruanan]

This is not your grandfather's grandfather... as it were.

Actually, cocaine was legal in your grandfather's grandfather's time.

[SmallGovRepub]

Why post this old story now?

[Ken H]

Actually, cocaine was legal in your grandfather's grandfather's time.

True. It would be interesting to compare addiction rates in 1900 vs 2000... ...in fact, I did!

By 1900, about one American in 200 was either a cocaine or opium addict.

--www.usdoj.gov/dea/demand/speakout/06so.htm

_____________________________________

"There were an estimated 980,000 hardcore heroin addicts in the United States in 1999, 50 percent more than the estimated 630,000 hardcore addicts in 1992."

--www.usdoj.gov/ndic/pubs07/794/heroin.htm

______________________________________

"The demand for both powdered and crack cocaine in the United States is high. Among those using cocaine in the United States during 2000, 3.6 million were hardcore users who spent more than $36 billion on the drug in that year."

--http://www.usdoj.gov/ndic/pubs07/794/cocaine.htm

_____________________________________

That works out to a rate of about 1.3% for cocaine in 2000 vs 0.5% for either cocaine OR opium in 1900. If you add in the heroin addicts, the addiction rate in 2000 to either cocaine OR heroin was about 1.6%.

So if the DOJ is to be believed, the addiction rate has roughly tripled. Sounds like a century of failure.

[I used a population figure of 280,000,000 for 2000]

[aruanan]

So, as I have said before, regardless of the laws, you'll still have a certain segment of the population that will use drugs or alcohol or tobacco. We have the choice

1. to have variations on this percentage and spend money to help them deal the consequences of the addiction or

2. to have variations on this percentage AND we can pass thousands of draconian anti-drug (or anti-tobacco or anti-alcohol) laws, create the economic environment that makes it possible for the growth of multi-billion dollar illegal drug operations, gang activities, a large percentage of the yearly murder rate, a multi-billion dollar drug interdiction business on federal, state, and local levels (with attendant corruption and property confiscation), together with lots of time and money wasted in school anti-drug programs, and the resultant rise in taxes at all levels of government to fund it.

#2 doesn't sound like value added to the problem of drug addiction.

[Ken H]

Concur.