Builder charged with selling heroin at job sites
Customers would buy the drug at Howard's city construction sites in pre-packaged "bricks" for $500 each, Onofri said. A brick is the equivalent of 50 doses of the drug... Law enforcement officers searched Howard's Garfield Ave nue residence and a detached ga rage behind the house at around 5 p.m. Wednesday. Inside the garage, detectives found 24 bricks of heroin with a street value of $12,000 and $20,000 in cash in the rafters of the garage, investigators said.

Builder charged with selling heroin at job sites
Drugs sold in large doses to people afraid to buy it on the streets

 BY JEFF TRENTLY
July 14, 2006
TRENTON -- A city builder who allegedly supplemented his in come by peddling heroin to the suburban working class was ar rested Wednesday.

Boyd H. Howard, 56, is accused of selling the drug in large quanti ties to people afraid to buy it on the streets.

"These folks were functioning drug addicts," Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Angelo Onofri said. "They held jobs but needed to purchase controlled dangerous substances to satisfy their addic tion."

Customers would buy the drug at Howard's city construction sites in pre-packaged "bricks" for $500 each, Onofri said. A brick is the equivalent of 50 doses of the drug.

"The point is so people don't have to go to the corner drug dealer to buy individual doses," Onofri said. "When you buy bricks you have less exposure on the street. It minimizes your chance of being caught."

The Mercer County Prosecutor's Office received tips from a number of sources that heroin was being sold in bulk quantities to people in suburbs surrounding Trenton, said Lt. Bill Straniero of the prosecutor's Special Investiga tions Unit.

After a two-month investiga tion, detectives identified Howard as an upper-level dealer, Onofri said.

Law enforcement officers searched Howard's Garfield Ave nue residence and a detached ga rage behind the house at around 5 p.m. Wednesday. Inside the garage, detectives found 24 bricks of heroin with a street value of $12,000 and $20,000 in cash in the rafters of the garage, investigators said.

More cash was found in the residence.

In total, $42,000 in cash, all in $100 bills, was found.

"He would buy in large quanti ties and sell in large quantities," Onofri said, adding that Howard bought the drugs already in brick form from Newark.

The consistency of the drug "is that of what we see in the area -- that's a very pure heroin," Onofri said.

No customers were arrested, Onofri said.

Howard, who uses 14 aliases, has an arrest history dating back to 1968 and is due in Mercer County Superior Court on Aug. 18 when he will be sentenced to a seven-year prison term with three years parole ineligibility on unrelated heroin charges.

Superior Court Judge Charles Delehey set his bail at $250,000.

Contact Jeff Trently at jtrent This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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