NEWARK, NJ—A leader in the Jersey City Fruit Town and Brick City Brims set of the Bloods street gang admitted today to conspiring to murder a rival gang member and to distribute narcotics as part of a racketeering conspiracy, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Saleen Neal, 31, pleaded guilty to one count of the second superseding indictment filed against him in January 2011, which charged him with conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Neal entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler in Newark federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Neal, a ranking member of the Fruit Town and Brick City Brims set of the Bloods, admitted that he conspired in February and March 2009 to murder a fellow member of the set, identified in court documents as “A.R.” Neal admitted that he declared A.R. to be “food”—meaning he was to be killed by fellow Bloods members—because he believed that A.R. gave a statement to law enforcement, in violation of Bloods rules, regarding the death of a fellow gang member who was killed in Jersey City.
Neal also admitted that he conspired with another individual in early 2009 to sell dozens of bricks of heroin to a confidential informant.
The racketeering conspiracy count to which Neal pleaded guilty carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Neal is currently scheduled to be sentenced on October 20, 2011.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Michael B. Ward—which includes members from the Newark Police Department, East Orange Police Department, Essex County Department of Corrections, Hudson County Sheriff’s Office, Jersey City Police Department, the New Jersey Division of Parole, and the Paterson Police Department—along with the New Jersey Department of Corrections, Special Investigations Division, with the investigation leading to the guilty plea.
He also thanked the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Acting Prosecutor Carolyn Murray; and the Special Operations Division’s National Gang Targeting, Enforcement and Coordination Center, under the direction of Director John Sieder, for their important roles.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Melissa L. Jampol, Lisa Colone, and Robert Frazer of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Organized Crime/Gangs Unit in Newark.
Defense counsel: Susan Cassell Esq., Ridgewood, N.J.
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