Ocean County Drug Kingpin Gets Life In Prison

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A former Lakewood man who was convicted in absentia in 2017 on charges of being a drug kingpin has been sentenced to life in prison on the charges, the Ocean County prosecutor's office announced.

Daryel Rawls, 38, was sentenced Friday to life in prison with 25 years of parole ineligibility for being the leader of a narcotics trafficking network, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said. Superior Court Judge Rochelle Gizinski also imposed a consecutive 10-year term for conspiracy to possess heroin with the intent to distribute, possession with intent to distribute heroin and possession with intent to distribute cocaine, with five years of parole ineligibility.

The net effect, the prosecutor's office said, is Rawls must serve at least 30 years in prison before he's even considered for parole, the prosecutor's office said.

Rawls was convicted March 22, 2017 in a jury trial in 2010 wiretap case dubbed "Operation Baked Zito," in which he was captured managing and organizing his heroin distribution ring and on thousands of messages. He was arrested on Oct. 17, 2010 and had more than 20 bricks (1,000 bags) of heroin and 26 grams of powder cocaine in his possession, authorities said.

Rawls was the target of the investigation that spanned multiple counties, including Ocean, Monmouth and Union, and 13 people were charged in the case.

Rawls, who had a lengthy prison record, did not show up for his 2017 trial and was on the run until Nov. 12, when he was arrested during a drug investigation in Milford, Connecticut, where he was going by the nickname "Primo." Read more: Major Drug Dealer, Fugitive From Justice Busted In Milford: PD

He was returned to Ocean County and filed a motion for a new trial that was denied by Gizinski, who then proceeded to sentence Rawls.

Rawls had previously spent time in state prison in connection with other cases. He and his brother, Detric Rawls, pleaded guilty in May 2012 to their roles in a heroin distribution ring in the Bayshore area of Monmouth County, a case that resulted in the arrests of 25 people. He also pleaded guilty to distribution charges in a Union County case in 2011.

According to New Jersey state prison records, Daryel Rawls was imprisoned in the Union County case from September 2011 to July 16, 2016, according to the records. The 46-month sentence in the Monmouth County case ran concurrently to the Union County case, where he was sentenced to a six-year extended term of incarceration as a repeat drug offender with a 30-month parole disqualifier.

Rawls also spent five years, eight months in prison in connection with a 2001 case where he was charged with drug distribution in Monmouth County, according to prison records.

Records also show Rawls was arrested in the Ocean County case while under indictment in the Union County case; in 2014, Rawls sought to have 155 days he spent in jail in Ocean County after an August 2010 arrest credited to his sentence in the Union County case, where he pleaded guilty.

Billhimer thanked Supervising Assistant Prosecutor Michael Abatemarco and Senior Assistant Prosecutor Robert Cassidy, who tried the case, as well as the members of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Narcotics Strike Force, the New Jersey State Police, and the Ocean County Sheriff’s Department for their collective assistance in bringing Rawls to justice.

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