Men Charged With Burglarizing Iselin Pharmacy

ISELIN, NJ — Ten Jersey City men are charged with burglarizing at least 40 pharmacies in northern New Jersey from October to December of 2020, and one of those pharmacies was in Iselin.

The pharmacies were not named, but they were located in Iselin, Secaucus, North Bergen, Linden, Guttenberg, Kenilworth, Madison, Short Hills, Jersey City, West New York, North Arlington and Lyndhurst, said Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael Honig in this press release.

The spree lasted from Oct. 11, 2020 through Dec. 22, said the AG. The men typically wore dark clothing, facemasks and gloves, and gained entry to the pharmacies by breaking windows or doors with a brick or a rock.

Police said they were specifically looking for codeine, acetaminophen with codeine and promethazine with codeine, with the intent of re-selling it on the street.

Mohummad Simmons, 25, Tamir Brown, 27, Rico Phang, 19, Deon Davis, 24, Michael Simeus, 27, David Booker, 28, Darrel Hicks, 25; Daquan Hart, 22, Jamiel French, 27, and Tyriq Rembert, 28, all of Jersey City, were all charged with one count of conspiracy to commit burglary involving controlled substances.

Patch wrote about the Secaucus pharmacy break-in when it happened: At 4:40 a.m. on Oct. 11, three men forcibly entered the Quik Drugs in Secaucus and took promethazine with codeine, a Schedule V controlled substance. They were recorded on surveillance video.

They fled the scene in a black Chevrolet Malibu registered to Simmons, said police.

In another instance, at 5:45 a.m. Nov. 6, two men forcibly entered a pharmacy in Linden. Approximately one hour and fifteen minutes before the burglary, the two men had been the subjects of a motor vehicle stop in Union, while traveling in the Malibu.

Surveillance video footage from the pharmacy in Linden showed Simmons and Phang wearing the same clothing that they were wearing during the body camera footage of the motor vehicle stop.

The surveillance video also showed Simmons and Phang depart the area of the burglary in the Malibu.

"The defendants went on a crime spree throughout northern New Jersey, breaking into pharmacies and stealing dangerous controlled substances, including opioids," Honig said. "I applaud the DEA and our local law enforcement partners for responding quickly to identify these suspects so that they can be brought to justice."

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