Jackson, NJ man pleads guilty to dealing heroin across Ocean County, NJ

A Jackson Township man has pleaded guilty to dealing heroin across Brick Township and Ocean County between February and March of 2021, announced Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer on Thursday.

The investigation into the distribution of heroin in Ocean County was a collaboration between the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Narcotics Strike Force and Stafford Police Department Drug Enforcement Unit and they were able to learn that it was 31-year old Cory Winston, in this case, who was distributing heroin across multiple communities, namely Brick Township.

It was on March 10, 2021, that Detectives executed a court-authorized search warrant at a storage unit Brick, Winston was using, and that's exactly where they found him.

Detectives tried to detain him pending execution of the search warrant, but he was reluctant to go quietly becoming "combative, and forcefully resisted efforts to detain him; it ultimately took the combined efforts of three detectives to take Winston into custody," according to Prosecutor Billhimer.

Winston was eventually detained and Detectives ultimately recovered approximately 3000 individual doses of Heroin, 200 grams of Eutylone, as well as various quantities of cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl as well as two handguns and an extended capacity magazine.

For his nefarious activity, Winston was brought to the Ocean County Jail and has been inside the facility since March 10, 2021.

Winston pleaded guilty on Thursday to Possession of more than One-Half Ounce but less than Five Ounces of Heroin with Intent to Distribute Unlawful Possession of a Weapon, and Resisting Arrest.

On the day Winston is sentenced on June 1, 2022, Prosecutor Billhimer said that the State will be seeking a term of five years concurrent in New Jersey State Prison on the narcotics distribution charge, five years with a 42-month period of parole ineligibility on the weapon offense, and three years on the resisting arrest charge.

Prosecutor Billhimer also announced that Ocean County Assistant Prosecutor Stephen Burke handled the case on behalf of the State.