AUGUST 17, 2007

PROSECUTOR’S SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT
ARRESTS TRENTON MAN, SEIZES $28,600 IN COCAINE

TRENTON -- Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph L. Bocchini Jr. announced that a six-week investigation led by his Special Investigations Unit (SIU), under the command of Lt. Bill Straniero, concluded yesterday with the arrest of a Trenton man and the seizure of 144 grams of powder cocaine and 142 grams of crack cocaine. 

Prosecutor Bocchini stated that his office received information that Kyle Pittman, 23, was selling cocaine out of a house in the first block of Spring Street.  An investigation was conducted and on Thursday afternoon, around 3:30 p.m., officers detained Pittman as he was sitting on a bench in a park across the from 54 Spring Street.   

A search warrant was executed at the residence by SIU officers assisted by the Trenton Police Department Vice Enforcement Unit, the state Division of Criminal Justice and the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office.  Officers found two plastic bags inside a kitchen window ledge, one bag containing 144 grams of powder cocaine and the other containing 142 grams of crack cocaine.  A digital scale and packaging materials were also seized. 

Straniero stated that seized drugs have a street value of approximately $28,600. 

Pittman was taken into custody and charged with possession of a controlled dangerous substance, possession with the intent to distribute, possession with the intent to distribute within 1000 feet of a school and possession with the intent to distribute within 500 feet of a park.  He is being held at the Mercer County Correction Center in lieu of $200,000 bail. 

In conjunction with the investigation, officers detained and released a second individual in the park.  The second male was followed to a residence on Centre Street where officers seized $1,500 in cash located in a pair of boots. 

Despite having been charged, every defendant is presumed innocent until found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.