{"id":20231,"date":"2022-06-29T17:20:32","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T21:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=20231"},"modified":"2022-06-29T17:20:32","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T21:20:32","slug":"brick-man-pleads-guilty-in-operation-checkmate-cocaine-rap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2022\/06\/brick-man-pleads-guilty-in-operation-checkmate-cocaine-rap\/","title":{"rendered":"Brick Man Pleads Guilty in ‘Operation Checkmate’ Cocaine Rap"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Andrew<\/a>

Andrew Contaldi<\/p><\/div>\n

A Brick Township man admitted to possessing and distributing cocaine in an Ocean County courtroom last week, prosecutors announced, after being charged in a lengthy anti-drug operation by law enforcement that came to be known as \u201cOperation Checkmate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew Contaldi, 47, of Brick, pleaded guilty before Superior Court Judge Lisa A. Puglisi June 23 to a charge of possessing more than five ounces of cocaine with intent to distribute. At the time of his sentencing on August 12, 2022, the State will be recommending a term of ten years New Jersey State Prison.<\/p>\n

According to prosecutors, \u201cOperation Checkmate\u201d was a four-month-long cooperative, multi-jurisdictional investigation conducted by the Ocean County Prosecutor\u2019s Office Narcotics Strike Force as well as the DEA and state police, in concert with many other state, county, and local law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ocean County Prosecutor\u2019s Office Narcotics Strike Force managed and directed three simultaneous multi-agency investigations into high level cocaine distribution in Ocean, Monmouth, and Middlesex Counties, as well as New York City,\u201d said Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer. \u201cDuring the course of these investigations, approximately 50 additional law enforcement personnel were assigned to the Ocean County Prosecutor\u2019s Office Narcotics Strike Force on a full-time basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Multiple agencies \u2013 both within and outside of Ocean County \u2013 assisted in every aspect of all three investigations. The investigations, identified as \u201cOperation Checkmate,\u201d began in July 2021 and concluded in October 2021.<\/p>\n

The three cocaine networks were responsible for the import of more than three kilograms of cocaine per week into the Ocean, Monmouth, and Middlesex County areas, according to Billhimer. Through \u201csophisticated surveillance methods and undercover operatives,\u201d Operation Checkmate was successful in disrupting and dismantling illicit drug distribution activities with the apprehension of 24 individuals for various offenses involving distribution of controlled dangerous substances.<\/p>\n

Additionally, 24 search warrants were executed, resulting in the seizure of more than four kilograms of cocaine, over 15 pounds of marijuana, in excess of $650,000 in cash, seven firearms (three handguns, three so-called \u201cghost guns,\u201d and one pistol grip shotgun), ten vehicles, and additional illegal narcotics.<\/p>\n

On October 26, 2021, detectives executed a court authorized search warrant on Contaldi\u2019s residence in Brick Township. As a result of the warrant, they seized approximately 397 grams of cocaine and $19,500 from Contaldi\u2019s residence. Contaldi was arrested at the residence and has been lodged in the Ocean County Jail since then.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Brick Township man admitted to possessing and distributing cocaine in an Ocean County courtroom last week, prosecutors announced, after being charged in a lengthy anti-drug operation by law enforcement that came to be known as \u201cOperation Checkmate.\u201d Andrew Contaldi, 47, of Brick, pleaded guilty before Superior Court Judge Lisa A. Puglisi June 23 to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[4709,24,4484],"class_list":["post-20231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-police-fire-courts","tag-andrew-contaldi","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-featured"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/contaldi.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-5gj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}