A Jersey City man was arrested with three others and charged in connection with the distribution of cocaine and fentanyl.

According to Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez, on Wednesday, Franklin Rodriguez-Liberto, 40, of Jersey City was arrested with three other men on Mill Creek Drive in Secaucus following a months-long investigation by the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office Narcotics Task Force and the Drug Enforcement Administration – New Jersey Division.

During the course of the investigation, over two kilograms of cocaine – with a street value of approximately $65,000 – over 125 grams of fentanyl – with a street value of more than $9,000 – and over $6,000, suspected proceeds from narcotics transactions, were seized. 

The men were charged in connection with multiple narcotics transactions that occurred in Secaucus and Kearny between April 2023 and July 2023. 

Rodriguez-Liberto is charged with three counts Possession with the Intent to Distribute (fentanyl); Possession with the Intent to Distribute (fentanyl); Conspiracy to Distribute (fentanyl); Distribution (fentanyl); Possession with the Intent to Distribute (fentanyl); Possession with the Intent to Distribute (cocaine); Conspiracy to Distribute (cocaine); Money Laundering; and Possession with the Intent to Distribute (marijuana). 

Richard Pena-Rodriguez, 37, of Union City, is charged with Conspiracy to Distribute (fentanyl) and Conspiracy to Distribute (cocaine). 

Steven Reyes, 44, of North Bergen, is charged with Conspiracy to Distribute (cocaine). 

Christopher Delacruz, 24, of New York, is charged with Conspiracy to Distribute (cocaine). 

All four defendants were taken to the Hudson County Correctional Facility pending their first court appearances.

Suarez credited the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office Narcotics Task Force, the Drug Enforcement Administration – New Jersey Division, the Elizabeth Police Department, the United States Department of Homeland Security Investigations – Newark, Hudson County Regional SWAT, the Secaucus Police Department K9 Unit, and the Bayonne Police Department K9 Unit with the investigation and arrests.

Photo by MART PRODUCTION