Crime & Safety

Matawan Heroin Kingpin Gets Life in Prison For Role in Bayshore Drug Ring

Dectric Rawls, 32, pleaded guilty. Local narcotics investigators found 63 bricks of heroin, a handgun and $28,766 in his Matawan home in 2009, located off Ravine Drive.

A Matawan man who admitted to running a Bayshore-area heroin ring, received a life sentence yesterday for being the “Leader of a Narcotics Trafficking Network,” which is the official title of New Jersey’s drug kingpin statute, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office.

Dectric Rawls, 32, of Fredwood Place, will be required to serve at least 25 years of that sentence before he will be eligible to apply for parole, according to the Prosecutor's Office. Rawls, who acted as the head of a Bayshore area based heroin distribution operation, pled guilty to all charges against him on April 30, 2012.

Those charges included possession of a firearm in the course of committing a drug offense, a second degree crime. The Honorable Francis P. Vernoia sentenced Rawls to an additional eight year state prison term with four years parole ineligibility for possession of a firearm in the course of committing a drug offense that must be served consecutively to the sentence imposed for being the Leader of a Narcotics Trafficking Network, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office.

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Dectric Rawls’ conviction stems from a cooperative investigation involving detectives from the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office Bayshore Narcotics Unit, the Old Bridge Police Department, the Sayreville Police Department, the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office and the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.

The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office’s Bayshore Narcotics Unit is comprised of members of the Keansburg, Union Beach, Atlantic Highlands, Highlands, Hazlet, Matawan, Keyport, Middletown, Aberdeen and Holmdel Police Departments.

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The investigation was commenced in July 2008, after law enforcement authorities received information indicating that Dectric Rawls was responsible for distributing significant amounts of heroin in the Bayshore area. An investigation conducted by the Prosecutor’s Office Bayshore Narcotics Unit revealed that Dectric Rawls sold approximately 100 bricks of heroin, with a street value of approximately $25,000, per week, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office. A "brick" of heroin typically contains 50 bags or packets of heroin.

The investigation culminated in the arrest of Dectric Rawls and eighteen of his associates on November 16, 2009. All were charged with numerous crimes relating to heroin distribution activities. Subsequently, six additional codefendants were identified and charged. The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office and Lakewood Police Department assisted with the arrests.

On November 16, 2009, law enforcement officers searched Rawls’ residence on Fredwood Place in Matawan. The search resulted in the seizure of approximately 63 bricks of heroin, a Lorcin .380 caliber automatic handgun and $28,766, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office.

The "bricks" of heroin have a weight of approximately three ounces and a street value of approximately $15,000.

The search of Dectric Rawls’ residence led detectives to a storage facility on Route 9 in Morganville, New Jersey, where Rawls rented a storage unit. Detectives conducted a search of that unit and located a safe that contained an additional $258,491, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office.

This case was assigned to Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher
Matthews.

Dectric Rawls is represented by Brian White, Esquire, of Toms River, New Jersey.


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